they were almost all able to dispute of Dogms To whom when their gathering together in one seemed to add a confidence of daring and decreeing something from themselves yet notwithstanding they would presume nothing arrogate nothing at all to themselves but took all possible heed lest they should deliver to their Posterity what themselves had not received from their Fathers and not only well disposed the matter for the present but also gave example to them that were to come after them to wit that they should reverence the dogms of sacred Antiquity and condemn Adinventa the additional inventions of profane Novelty This then was not an Age wherein to introduce new doctrins into the Church nor any other before S. Vincent For he tells us chap. 9. Mos iste c. That custome has always flourished in the Church and by how much any one hath been more Religious the more readily has he opposed new inventions We have hereof plenty of examples every where The same S. Vincent witnesses that in the third Age the Assertors of Rebaptization wanted neither wit nor eloquence nor number nor verisimilitude of Truth nor Oracles of the divine Law but understood in a bad and new manner chap. 9 and 10. How came they then to lose their cause S. Stephen and his Collegues reclamed Nihil novandum c. Nothing is to be innovated besides what has been delivered to us Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage holding Rebaptization against the rule of the Universal Church against the sense of all his fellow Priests against the custom and institutions of his Ancestors and hereby as S. Vincent observes giving a form of Sacriledge to all Hereticks this overthrew him Had now the doctrin of the Real presence been an Idolatrous Novelty its manifest no Introducer of it could have perswaded it to a Christian Church thus principled as the Doctors of these times were They would all unanimously have reclamed Nothing must be innovated besides what has been delivered to us by our Ancestors Moreover that the Christian doctrin remained pure and incorrupt for some Centuries of years after its first planting is further evinced by considering the state of the Christian Church for the first 300. years to wit that it was severely persecuted all the world over Now can any reasonable man imagin that they who were continually exposing their lives for their Religion would if they could agree together so notoriously to change it as to make themselves most gross Idolaters by adoring bread and wine as the true body and blood of their Creator and God Nor can it be imagin'd when the Centuries of the persecuted state of the Church were ended that the Christians now in a full liberty of professing and practising their Faith would all on the sudden so notoriously change that Faith which had been delivered them by their Fore-fathers who had seal'd it with their blood And this none can doubt of who reflects how tenacious all man kind is of that Religion they were bred up in In so much as let any one consult the whole world and he shall never find so much as one Nation or Country to have changed their Religion without a great deal of â—oise and difficulty and a considerable length of time and so as Posterity could for many Ages give an account of such a change how and by what means it happened so as to satisfie any rational demander of an account of such a change without flying to imperceptible mutations by little and little but when or by whom no account is to be given The usual refuge of our Adversaries when we demand of them how not one Country but all the Christian Countrys in the world came to believe so universally this strange doctrin of the change of Bread and Wine into our B. Saviours body and blood The whole world formerly in a manner Pagan except a handful of Jews is now become Christians we give an account of it Twelve men dividing the world amongst them by stupendious Miracles a holy life and glorious death converted great numbers of several Nations to the Christian Faith and these taught it their Children under sharp persecutions for some three hundred years and after that through the favour of Emperors and Kings Converted to be Christians it made that spread we now see Arrianism over-ran a great part of the Christian world and we are able to give an account how and by what means without recurring to imperceptible growing by little and little Arrius first broach'd that Heresie and by the favour of Emperors it got a great footing in Christendom In like manner had the strange doctrin of Transubstantiation been a Novel Invention 't is not possible but at first teaching it must needs have been opposed and could not have so over-spread the Christian world in the nineth Century as its evident to any one versed in Ecclesiastical History it did without great preaching of its first Abettors and strange favour of Christian Princes That the whole Christian world for the first six hundred years should be wholly ignorant of this strange mysterious doctrin and so hard to be believed and that in the nineth Century it should be generally believed and not as a new doctrin neither which was pretended by that Age to have been found out by vertue of greater light by reading the Holy Scriptures c. but as a doctrin they had been taught from their Fore-fathers by an immemorable Tradition is harder to believe than the mystery it self to any judicious considerer how difficultly as I hinted above we are perswaded to leave the doctrins we have been taught by our Parents from our Child-hood In confirmation of this let but any one consider the state of our own Country About the year 1500 we generally believed and adored the bread and wine in the H. Eucharist as our B. Saviours true body and blood Now 't is confess'd we a hundred for one believe the contrary But how was this new Faith bred in us By stopping the mouthes of all the Preachers of the antient mysterious doctrin and by persecuting with severe Laws all Professors of that antient Faith And yet you see even all this diligence has not been able to root out the antient belief universally neither Much-less was what has been done been effected so without noise but all our Chronicles mention how our new belief was wrought And can any one think that not one Kingdom but all the Kingdoms of the Christian world could be brought so universally to change their Faith without any mention in any History how and by whom this strange change was wrought Especially if he reflect how hardly human nature does believe strange things which neither sense nor reason can give any evidence of And on the contrary how easily and gladly we relinquish Beliefs which have been imposed upon us when we have as we think the evidence both of sense and reason for our change All which notwithstanding you see how that after a 150
A RATIONAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN A Letter to a Person of Honor from a Master of Arts of the University of CAMBRIDGE Printed in the Year MDCLXXVI A RATIONAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING TRANSUBSTANTIATION SIR HAving lately had the honor of your Company you were pleased to signifie a particular difficulty which you had to believe the great mystery of Love and grand stumbling block of more ingenious Protestants the mystery of Transubstantiation in which if I could give you satisfaction to my best remembrance you promised me to reconcile your self to the Church of Rome Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco My own sad misfortune to have been Educated in the misbelief of this sublime Article of our Christian Faith till the five and twentieth year of my Age makes me very tenderly compassionate both to your self and all others whom I see to be involved in the same misery The all good and all powerful God who has so firmly made me to believe this strange miracle of Love that had I a thousand Lives I would most willingly through God's assistance lay them all down to Seal it with my blood give your Honor and all Mis-believers the like satisfaction to your and their Eternal comfort What satisfies me I shall in the best manner I am able Candidly propose to your mature and impartial consideration Sir My sentiment concerning the adorable Eucharist is that it is neither less nor more than the Sacred Body and Blood of God neither less nor more than whole Christ. God and Man Soul Body and Divinity though for the love and service of us Sinners veiled under the vile accidents and appearances of common Bread and ordinary Wine Concerning which mystery my first Assertion shall be Assertion 1. It is possible to the Omnipotent power of God to change the substance of Bread and Wine into the substance of our blessed Saviours Body and Blood And this our Adversaries generally grant Whence by the way take notice that all such Arguments and most of them are such as pretend to prove Transubstantiation impossible even in the judgment of our Adversaries are Sophisms and do not prove their Proposers inintent Else they must confess that two Contradictories may be true and that they can and do believe them both To wit that Transubstantiation is both possible and impossible and they can and do believe as much 'T is possible that they grant and 't is also impossible for that their Arguments attempt to prove Further. I prove Transubstantiation possible thus What you and I can do and every day actually do in four and twenty hours surely God Almighty can do in a moment But you and I in four and twenty hours turn Bread and Wine into the substance of our bodies by eating drinking and digesting of them Therefore our B. Saviour in a moment without eating and drinking by a mere Fiat or will that the substance of bread and wine be turned into the substance of his Body and Blood can effect it But then you will say the substance of the bread and wine must be transferred into Heaven that it may be changed into the substance of our Lord's body there But why so Is it not sufficient that the substance of our-Lord's body in Heaven be made to be under the accidents of bread and wine here But how can the substance of our Saviours body be in Heaven under such a measure of quantity and such accidents there and at the same time be here on Earth under a different quantity and accidents Why how is the substance of the same Air condens'd under a lesser quantity to day which rarified yesterday was under a greater quantity For the antient and commonly received definition of Rarefaction is a little matter under a great quantity and of Condensation is a great deal of matter under a little quantity For example In a Weather-glass the same air rarified fills twice as much space as did the same air condens'd as is evident to your eye So that the same substance of air when it is rarified fills the spaces A. and B. which when it was condens'd fill'd only the space A. and this without any addition of any new substance of air only the same substance by vertue of Rarefaction is under a greater quantity than it was before And will you pawn your soul the Omnipotent God cannot by Consecration make his own body be present to the spaces A and B which before Consecration was only present to the space A. Now who would ever have imagin'd such Doctrin as this concerning Rarefaction and Condensation should have been taught by an Aristotle to explicate Nature and not rather have been invented by some Christian Philosopher to declare the supernaturality of Transubstantiation so aptly does it agree with that hidden and holy mystery 2. None make difficulty of a spirits being in different places at once The soul is generally acknowledged to be all in the head and all in the foot as Almighty God is all in France and all in England not one part of him here and another there not one God in France and another in England We indeed because we never saw the same thing in two places but always different things in different places are apt to imagine it impossible for the same thing at the same time to be in two different places Hence it follows whatsoever involves not a contradiction being possible to God Almighty let our phansie say what it will we must follow our reason and acknowledge Almighty God can make not only a spiritual substance but even a material one be in two places at once unless we can shew it includes a contradiction To be here and not to be here is indeed a contradiction but to be here and there at the same time is no contradiction else neither our soul nor God Almighty himself could be all here and all in another place at the same time Now will any one who is forced by his Faith and Reason to acknowledge a spiritual substance is actually in two places at once pawn his eternal salvation as he does who purely for this difficulty continues Protestant that God Almighty cannot by all his Omnipotency make a corporeal substance be here and in Heaven at the same time Now that the bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist should affect our senses in the same manner as they did before their change into our B. Saviours body and blood this ought to seem no impossible wonder to a Christian who believes so many miracles in our Lords Incarnation Conception and Nativity of a Virgin Such a Miracle as this our Lord wrought when he appeared to S. Mary Magdalen in the shape of a Gardner His face no doubt was his own true face but it wrought upon S. Mary Magdalens eyes as if it had been the face of the Gardiner And here I had thought to have inserted the different ways which different Schools of Catholick Divines take to explicate how this
and blew with ignominious buffets what wonder now when he is become immortal and impassible and can suffer no more defilement from the basest ordures than do the bright Sun beams from the foulest mud when they shine upon it that he should permit himself to be eaten by Mice or Doggs or suffer other viler indignities if Sacrilegious Sinners will permit or cause them Moreover such a presence of our great Lord what an Incitement would it have been to pious Munificence in adorning our Christian Churches with the richest Gold and most precious Stones or what ever else that 's rare and splendid which Nature or Art does afford making them little Heavens for lustre and glory and thereby exciting in the hearts of all that should enter them a due reverence to the Almighty whom we worship If Solomon so adorned his Temple where only a Sheep or a Calf or a little Incense was offered to the Creator of all things what glory could have been thought too rich for our Christian Churches where an Oblation worthy of the great God should every day have been Sacrificed unto him the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world the God-Man Christ Jesus In fine what vertue should not our dear Saviour have given us example of by such a charitable humiliation of himself Obedience to come down from Heaven to Earth at the voice of every Christian Priest though never so simple for his understanding or never so wicked for his life and manners Charity Humility Patience Contempt of the Judgments or sayings of men c. 3. Assertion The bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist are by the Omnipotent power of God actually and in deed changed into the body and blood of our B. Saviour Jesus Christ which I prove thus This was the universal belief of the Christian world in the nineth Century after our B. Saviour as is evident by the testimony of all the writings of that Age and by the universal testimony of the tenth Age who profess in all Christian Countrys to have received this Faith from their immediate Ancestors Nor do our Adversaries deny it and therefore appeal to the first six hundred years in which they say the Christian doctrine remained incorrupt But if the doctrine of the real mutation of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist into our B. Saviours body and blood was generally believed in the nineth Age it must necessarily be taught in the first Age by the Apostles to their first Converts over all the world and consequently be most certainly true For it cannot be doubted but that the first Converts of the H. Apostles did not only understand what the Apostles taught them concerning this great mystery but also did throughly believe it and highly esteem it as they did all other doctrines and practices taught them by the same their first Maffers as not only of exceeding profit above all the things of this life but also as highly necessary to them and their Children to bring them to eternal bliss Which being so none can doubt but that the same first Disciples both could and would and actually did teach the very same doctrine which they so highly esteemed as to embrace it with the bazard of their lives to their Children and Successors And this they taught them not as an invention of their own but as a doctrine taught them by the Apostles of Jesus Christ who confirmed their Mission from the infallible God by evident miracles In like manner it cannot be doubted but these taught their Children also concerning this mystery what they had been taught by their Fathers and not as the invention of their Fathers but as a doctrine taught their Fathers by the undoubted Messengers of Heaven the Holy Apostles The like may be said of all the intervening Generations for the first six hundred years which our Adversaries do not deny though it be all one to the force of this Argument to grant so much only for the first four hundred years Now if Transubstantiation was not taught for the first six hundred years but the contrary whatsoever age be it the seventh eighth or nineth would begin to teach the doctrine of the real presence of our Lordâ— body in the Sacrament they could not possibly have the impudence to tell their Children the bread and wine in the Eucharist were turned into the true body and blood of our Saviour and thus they had been taught by their Fathers and Grandfathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles This I say it is impossible they could have the Impudence to assert when every one must needs know his Father and Grand-father had believed and taught him otherwise What must they pretend then to impose upon their Children this new and strange mysterious Doctrine They must tell them their Fathers and Grand-fathers and other Ancesters for some hundreds of years had been in an Error and had forsaken the Doctrine taught by the Apostles and their first Converts as to this mystery and confirm their Assertion by the clear words of Holy Scripture Take and Eat this is my Body c. and by other testimonies out of the Writers of the first or second Century But no History makes mention of any such manner of bringing in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in the seventh eighth or other Century Therefore it was never so brought in but was always believed nor indeed could it ever in any Century be brought in by the Church of Christ whose custom has ever been not only in the seventh and eighth but in every other Century before after alwaies to teach and to pretend to teach her Children not Doctrins devised or found out by herself by reading the Holy Scriptures or other means but what was taught her by her Fore Elders uninterruptedly from the Apostles and still when Hereticks or beginners of any new Doctrin in any age pretended Scriptures for them she opposed we have been taught otherwise by our Ancesters and to understand those Scriptures in another sense than you understand them Which way of Teaching a bringer in of a new Doctrine its evident could not use For if he did not begin to teach his Child otherwise than he was taught by his Father he should teach no new or other Doctrine But if he did begin to teach his Child otherwise than his Father taught him he could not at the same time tell his Child thus he was taught by his Father and so upward from the Apostles when both his own Conscience and all his Neighbours would testifie the contrary Calvin for example could not tell his Child that he was taught by his Father to deny Transubstantiation No more could the first Teacher of Transubstantiation in the seventh or other Century had it been a Novelty tell his Child he was so taught to believe by his Father but must have pretended to have more light than his Father and Ancesters as our Adversaries did when they began to deny it Hence it is evident Transubstantiation
was not begun in the seventh or other Century but was alwaies believed since the Apostles seeing that in the nineth Century Christians universally believed that in the holy Eucharist the bread and wine were changed into the body and blood of our Saviour and as such adored them and embraced this doctrine of the real presence not as a doctrine newly found out by themselves or their immediate Fore-fathers by reading the holy Scriptures or other means but as taught them by their Fore-fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles and seeing likewise this has ever been the way of the Catholick Church to teach and pretend to teach Posterity not new Doctrines of her own but what she had learnt from her Ancestors Hence S. Vincent Lerinensis twelve hundred years ago in his Golden Treatise against the profane Innovations of Heresies upon those words of S. Paul Siquis c. If any one Evangelize to you besides what you have received let him be Anathema Sed forsitan c. But perhaps those things were commanded the Galatians only Then those things also which follow in the same Epistle were commanded the Galatians only Be not desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Or perhaps was it then commanded if anyone announce besides what has been announced let him be Anathemaâ—ized but now it is not commanded Therefore and that also which he there saies But I say walk in the Spirit and do not perfect the desires of the Flesh was then only commanded but is not now commanded But if it be impious and pernicious to believe so it necessarily follows that as these things are to be observed by all Ages so those things also which are established concerning not changing the Faith are commanded to all Ages Wherefore it was never lawful it is not now lawful nor ever shall be lawful to Christian Catholicks to announce any thing besides what they have received Let him cry and cry again and to all and alwaies and every where let him cry by his Epistle that Vessel of Election that Master of the Gentils that Trumpet of the Apostles that Preacher of the World Conscious to the secrets of Heaven let him cry if any one preach a new Doctrine let him be Anathematiz'd And on the contrary side let certain Froggs and Cynifes and Flies that are to perish such as are the Pelagians reclame and this to Gatholiks We say they being Authors we being Heads we being Expositors Condemn what ye did hold hold what ye did Condemn reject the ancient Faith the institutions of your Fathers the depositions of your Ancestors and receive but what I have a horror to mention them for they are such proud things c. But may not general Councils at least presume to reach new Doctrines Hear the same S. Vincent chap. 32. Hoc semper neque quicquam praeterea c. The Catholick Church excited by the Novelties of Hereticks by the decrees of her Councils even did this and not thing more than this what she had received by Tradition only this she consigned to Posterity by writing comprehending a great sum of things in a few letters and for the most part for the light of understanding signing the not new sense of Faith with the propriety of a new name Take notice that the Christian Church using this means to preserve the Faith first received its impossible she should ever lose or change it For if Fathers from the beginning had resolved to teach their Children what they had learnt or even thought they had learnt from their Parents as to the point of the Real prefence or other doctrine its impossible they should teach another doctrine For should they teach another doctrine it must happen either because they were ignorant what was taught them by their Parents which is impossible not only to whole Nations but even to the Inhabitants of one small Town or else because though they knew what was taught by their Parents yet they would teach otherwise than they had been taught but then they must forsake their first resolution of teaching their Children what they thought they had learnt from their Fathers contrary to the Supposition But on the other side let us suppose a book fully written as to all points to be believed by Christians by the first teachers of Christianity Let them together with this Book give charge to their 〈◊〉 Converts neither to add to it nor to diminish it and to believe as in their Consciences they shall think that Book shall teach them Though Generation after Generation be never so faithful to such a charge yet they may in after Ages come to lose or change their Faith because the Book may seem to one Generation to bear one sense and to another Generation to bear another Especially if the mysteries to be believed be very sublime and the Book obscure in many places and admit of divers senses when it speaks of those mysterieâ— For example these words This is my Body may seem to one Age to bear this sense This is a sign of my body and â—o another This is really and truly my body But no ten Families who have been taught by their Parents either to believe our Saviours body is in the Euecharist or that it is not there can possibly mistake what their immediate Fathers taught them and frequently inculcated to them as to this point both by themselves and choice persons ordained on purpose for this end to teach what they learnt from their immediate Masters and Fathers Nothing can make a change here but a resolution to go contrary to what they know was taught them by their Parents Wherefore seeing God Almighty is resolved not to teach every Age by immediate infallible Missionants from himself but to send inspired Ambassadors to one particular Generation only and to leave that Generation to teach their Children successively till the day of Judgment what they learnt from the immediate infallible Messengers of Heaven And seeing also a Book with a charge not to change or alter it and with a charge also to follow what should seem to every Generation to be the sense of it and supposing every Generation faithful to such a charge would not have been a sufficient means to keep the first divine Faith from Corruption we may safely conclude the Almighty has not taken that way to teach the world But seeing Oral teaching by inspired Pastors at first with a charge to every Generation to follow what they thought was taught them by their immediate Parents and Teachers provided every Generation were true to this charge would have kept the first Faith inviolate we may also conclude the Almighty has taken this way Especially finding a Congregation of so vast a spread in being who pretends to have made use of this means to preserve her first Faith taught her Ancestors many hundred years ago nor can she be evinced by any History or Tradition or any thing but mere sayings and ungrouâ—â—â—d surmises to have lost
up our shops on the Anniversary of the death of our gracious Soverain Charles the First unless we had been commanded so to do by some Universal Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil Take notice by this Argument is also proved all other points of Catholick practice or Faith as Purgatory prayer for the Dead c. but especially such as nature has a difficulty to believe or do That one man should kill himself is no wonder but that all the Inhabitants of a populous City should kill themselves would be such a wonder as never yet happen'd in Nature Against all that has been said I doubt not but you will be apt to reply We acknowledge for divers Ages our own and other Christian Countrys believed the holy Eucharist to be really and substantially our B. Saviours true body blood adored it as such but yet we cannot believe that either S. Peter and Paul at Rome or S. Joseph of Arimathia in our own Country taught any such doctrin but that imperceptibly by little and little the whole Christian world changed the Faith that was first planted by the Apostles as particular men grow gray and whole Countries change their Languages imperceptibly For Answer to this Reply let us not discourse in generals but consider and devise with our selves how possibly such a thing might practically happen For example let us take the City of Rome into our consideration It s confessed by all that the Inhabitants of that Cultivated City Priests and People universally do believe and have for many generations believed a Consecrated Wafer to be Jesus Christ God and Man veiled with the outward appearance or species of common Bread Now we are to enquire how they came to this strange Faith Say then Rome by little and little began to believe this mystery first one and then another till at length the whole City was of that belief But how without a Teacher and all in the same year or in what length of time That one man or some few in a populous City should of themselves fall to the belief of such a strange mystery contrary to what has been believed by their Ancestors might be granted but that the whole City Learned and Unlearned Priest and People should so change their Faith and that for such a strange one too without a Master or a Teacher that 's wholly incredible Or if some Bishop or Priest of Rome since the Apostles had perswaded the people to believe the strange doctrin of Transubstantiation how comes it to pass seeing the belief of the doctrin is still retained that the Authors name is not retained with singular honor and reverence by the believers of it as the names of Calvin and Luther are by Calvinists and Lutherans and the names of the first Preachers of Christianity by the several Christian Countrys they converted Besides whosoever Priest or Layman should have begun to preach such a strange and incredible doctrin to nature must needs have met with great opposition from all sorts of persons from good men because his doctrin tended to make them all gross Idolaters and Worshippers of a piece of Bread as God from bad men because his doctrin strangely shocked their sense and reason which nature and vitious followers of nature would by no means endure Now if opposition were made at the first introducing of this new Faith how comes it to pass all both Roman and other Histories are silent as to any such thing Should I by way of Prophesie tell you that the great City of London within these 300. years shall as universally as does now the City of Rome believe and adore the Holy Eucharist as Jesus Christ himself and this so imperceptibly that neither they nor neighbouring Citys or Countrys shall perceive it till the whole City be quite changed Nay 300. years hence when they shall be charged with Idolatry and Innovation for such their belief and practice they shall profess that they have always so believed and practised ever since they were Christians And all this though they shall for these 300. years have Priests and Bishops whose Office it shall be to teach the quite contrary doctrin and these Priests shall be such Zealous retainers of the doctrin they now believe that when in the compass of this 300. years to come there shall rise up Teachers of new Doctrins deniers of the Divinity of our Saviour and the eternity of the torments of impenitent Sinners c. and shall alledge strong human Reasons and seeming Scriptures for themselves these Priests shall oppose we must innovate nothing we must stick to the belief our Ancestors were of in the year 1675. Then God Almighty testified from Heaven by evident Miracles the Truth of our Fore-elders Faith and then we had charge not to change our Faith though on Angel from Heaven should accuse us of mistake and therefore you must pardon us if we adhere to this Faith Add. There shall not want frequent Assemblies of the wisest and best Learned in the City and they shall meet on purpose to enquire whether the faith and practice of the year 1675. be kept and yet they shall never take notice of so gross and notorious a change as the believing and adoring a piece of bread as God till the whole City be in such a belief and practice but other mistakes that some particular men were bringing in they shall observe and correct Nay 300. years hence there shall rise up a certain Priest who shall accuse all the Priests and people of the City for believing otherwise thâ—n their Ancestors did in 1675 but yet shall not be able by vertue of any History or Oral Tradition to shew how or by whom they were perswaded to that strange Faith they shall then be of and yet there shall not want Historiographers neither who shall take notice of other notorious changes that shall happen both in Church and State in those 300. years Think now seriously with your selves how impossible it is for any such thing to happen in nature and examin impartially whether the deniers of Transubstantiation be not forced to affirm the like incredible wonder to have happen'd not in one City alone but in many Cities and whole Countrys But the wonder would be yet greater if there were not one Believer of Transubstantiation in the year 1675. in the City of London nor never had been one since the first planting of Christianity neither there nor in any other neighbouring City or Country and yet all this must be solved by deniers of Transubstantiation to be Apostolical doctrin For place your self in what Age of Christianity you please and suppose the known Cities and Countries of Christendom to believe universally concerning the holy Eucharist as the Citizens of London generally do now Take for example the year 500. after our B. Lord though our Adversaries pretend to be willing to be judged by the Doctors of the first 600. Add to 500. a decursion of 300. or 500. years and then see what Faith the Christian world is of and you 'l find they universally believe and adore the Holy Eucharist as Rome does at this present Joyn now your selves with Berengarius in the year one thousand and fifty or thereabouts and see what account you can give how all your fellow Clergy and Laity came so to have changed and 〈…〉 from what it was in the fifth Century For you â—â—â—ll not think the several Councils gathered against that denier of the Real presence the Bishops in them then first began to believe the Real presence and that when they returned to their several Diocesses they taught them a strange new doctrin which they by inspiration had newly learnt when they were Assembled together but they only gave in their Verdicts what immemorially had been believed in their several Countrys they came from as to that mystery As if for example a Synod of all the Bishops in England should meet in the year 1675. to examin concerning the Quakers whether they Preached false and Antichristian doctrin or no in denying Baptism and all other Sacraments and they should conclude against those Innovators would you infer thence the Church of England only in the year 1675. and never before reverenced Baptism or any other Sacrament of Christ And yet this is just our case when our Adversaries will have the belief and adoration of the B. Sacrament to have not been heard of before the Councils that condemned Berengarius As to your instances of a man growing gray and whole Countrys imperceptibly changing their language is it possible think you for any mans whole head by little and little to grow gray and neither he nor any other should take notice of it till he were as white as Snow and this though he and others were charged to take notice of every hair that should grow gray and to pluck it out immediatly and he and others should frequently consult whether any such change were made in his head or no Say the same concerning a whole Countrys changing their Language by little and little Impose a severe penalty against any one that in writing or speech should introduce a new word and appoint Officers to take notice of all such new coyned words and let these Officers have frequent consults to this purpose Add a menace of death both to Overseers and people if any such alteration through their neglect of their duty should happen And then think how it could be possible for a whole Country by little and little imperceptibly to change its Language The like change and menace gave Jesus Christ to the Pastors of his Church not to change their Faith And yet after all this can not one Country but the whole Christian world have so changed their Faith as they became imperceptibly most stupid Idolaters To conclude if you examin the matter well you will find you must either resolve to believe the strange doctrin of Transubstantiation or else something far more incredible Soli Christo Gloria
high mystery is wrought But my design being to satisfie Unbelievers as to the substance of the mystery and not to puzle the Faith of Believers by making them glare too wistly upon the manner how this divine secret is wrought it being more safely admired together with the mystery of the Incarnation and ever blessed Trinity then curiously pried into I resolved to draw a Veyl before it by a profound silence of the several explications of Divines and to content my self with letting you know in general how different Doctors of different Philosophical Principles according to their several Philosophies differently explicate the mystery of the H. Eucharist and defend it differently against Calvinists as they do the mystery of the B. Trinity against the Antitrinitarians and of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word against the Arrians some by virtual distinction others by real formal and others otherwise And yet all hold that after Consecration the bread is no longer bread but is changed into the body of our Lord but how it is done some say one way some another according to their different Tenets in Philosophy still all agreeing that this change is fitly called Transubstantiation and that with good reason for the same remaining the same must needs be the same and cannot possibly be made what it was not without some change The bread then that it may become our Savious body must have some change wrought in it but in its accidents its evident there is none they remaining the same as before therefore the change must be in the substance And can now the change of the substance of bread into the substance of our B. Lords body be called by a fitter name than a substantial change or Transubstantiation And this some of the Learnedst of the Church of England would do well to reflect on who urged by the clearness of our Saviviours own words This is my Body and the multitude of Testimonies of the Fathers of the first six hundred years and the impossibility of such a Doctrins over spreading the whole Christian world without any appearance of its beginning and the opposition it must needs have found by reason of its strangeness both to sence and reason and its engaging the whole Church in a material at least Idolatry unless it had been taught the world at first by our B. Lord and his Apostles I say some of the Learnedst of the Engglish Glergy being urged by such considerations as these confess the Holy Eucharist as they begin to call it after Consecration to be really and truly our B. Saviours body and therefore fall down before it and adore it and for this cause disown the new Rubrick of the Common-prayer-book which saies our Lords body is in Heaven and not upon the Altar These Doctors will tell you they acknowledge the thing only they dare not be so bold as the Romanists to determine the manner And one of the Learnedst of them Mr. Thorndike asks why cannot our B. Saviour appear to us in what shape he pleases in the shape of a Gardiner or if it so please him in the shape of bread and wine These Doctors I say would do well to reflect the Church of Rome has not determin'd the manner of our B. Saviours bodies being in the Sacrament and therefore her Divines some explicate it one way some another but only the thing it self the manner how being left to the dispute of her Doctors 2. Assertion If our B. Saviour would have left us his sacred body and blood instead of all the Sacrifices of Sheep and Oxen under the Mosaical dispensation to be offered up by Christian Priests and to be fed upon by the Christian people it would have been a favour worthy of his excessive love to Mankind by reason of the innumerable benefits which would have accrued to us by the continual oblition and presence of so worthy a sacrifice What an incentive would this have been to Christian piety How would such a Sacrifice as this have compell'd High and Low Rich and Poor Learned and Unlearned with a strange reverence to have flocked about our Christian Altars where not a Lamb or a Beast but the body of God and the blood of God and by concomitancy whole God and Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up by choice Persons to the Almighty for the good of the World How would the presence of such an Oblation have kept them attentive and encreased their servor in their Prayers when they should have been able to have said This before me which I see with my eyes is my dear Redeemer and God that was Crucified for me and is to be my Judge How earnestly should we have made all our Petitions to him and how heartily should we have thanked him for all his Love To understand this Imagin our B. Saviour should appear to you in your Chamber every Morning in that very body and shape He is now in Heaven were you assured it was he and not an illusion with what humility would you prostrate your self before him How heartily would you cry him mercy for all your sins and earnestly recommend all the desires of your soul unto him And how would this high favour melt your soul into a mòst tender affection towards him But these would have been the happy circumstances of the whole Christan world would our Omnipotent Lord out of his abundant goodness have left us his sacred self under the disguise of the Accidents of bread and wine The same Petitions with a like fervour would every Christian have made every Holy Mass which you would have made every Morning upon such an Apparition as was supposed My dear Jesus true God and Man the very same who art in Heaven in all splendor and glory art here upon the holy Altar before me Veiled under the vile appearances of common bread and ordinary wine and all this for my sake that to my souls health thou mightest be seen handled and tasted by me Nor couldst thou be hindred from this excess of Love to me unworthy Sinner although thou didst foresee the Revilings thou wert to endure for it from ungrateful Calvinists Who for this would call thee a Breadden God and reproach thy devout Adorers as more stupid Idolaters than the very Pagan Worshippers of Sun and Moon Rather then I should want the delicious comfort of thy continual presence the happy pledge of eternally seeing thee face to face all this and yet greater indignities wouldst thou subject thy self unto by one to to be reviled by his impious tongue by another to be trampled under his foul feet by a third to be cast into some Sink or Jaques O Impiety O Ingratitude of finful men O unheard of goodness of our dearest Lord thus to abject himself for our sakes But what wonder if when he was in a passible mortal body he would permit himself by wicked Miscreants to be torn with cruel Whips to be bespatterd with filthy Spittle and to be made black
or changed her first belief And if you 〈◊〉 make use of a Book to guide you in your Faith as the Catholick Church also does you must resolve to interpret it if you will be sure not to mistake as she does that is in that sense in which it was understood by your Fathers and not in that sense it shall seem to bear to you if contrary to the sense it seemed to bear to your Ancestors Pardon Sir this long digression I hope it will conduce to your more full satisfaction And take notice that wheresoever Transubstantiation is believed the believers of it profess to have been so taught by their Fore-fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles wheresoever this mystery is denied the deniers of it do not profess to have been taught to deny it by their Fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles but only by their Ancestors for about a hundred and fifty years and that their Ancestors about the year fifteen hundred had more light than their Progenitors for about a thousand years who were all in darkness and had left the right Faith taught by the Apostles and for the first fix hundred years of Christianity An evident conviction this that the denial of Transubstantiation is a Novelty and the asserting of it the antient verity For had Transubstantiation been a new Doctrin and never heard of before the seventh or eighth Age the Assertors of it must have been forced to plead for it after the manner its Opposers plead against it by saying their Fore fathers only for so long for example for eight hundred years had believed it but in the year eight hundred their Ancestors had more light than their Fore-fathers and they by reading the Holy Scriptures and Fathers of the first Century came to understand that our Saviours true body was in the Holy Eucharist and that their immediate Progenitors for five or six hundred years had left the first Apostolical doctrin as to this mystery If you remember I supposed from the confession of our Adversaries that the Christian Doctrin remained pure and incorrupt for some Centuries of years after its first planting which I now shall endeavor to prove And indeed whosoever maturely considers the genius and temper of the Christian Doctors and Bishops for the first Centuries after our Saviour will find it impossible for all the power of Hell to impose a Novelty upon them especially such an one as would make them all Idolaters For they were not like the seeming Zelots of our Age pretenders to new lights but their profession was not to correct Antiquity not to deliver to Posterity doctrine of their own devising but carefully to keep what they had received from their Fore-fathers and faithfully to teach their Children what they had been taught by their Fathers And their great Answer to Introducers of new Doctrirs or Practices was Nihil nouandum nisi quod traditum est We must innovate nothing but stick close to what has been delivered to us by our Fore-fathers As for pretenders to discover new Truths by reading of the holy Scriptures it s easily conceivable how such persons may be imposed upon by subtil Sophisters and made to believe erroneous doctrins to wit by bad and new Interpretations of good and antient Scriptures But on the other fide how shall a Teacher of Novelties deceive a Christian Country which is resolved to hold fast whatsoever doctrin was taught them by their immedate Progenitors who received the same doctrin by an uninterrupted delivery from Father to Son from the Apostles Let him pretend Scriptures and bring a thousand places out of the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles what will the Reply be The Scriptures you alledge we reverence and have ever been taught to reverence them as divine but we have been taught to interpret and understand them in another manner and sense than you alledge them Let him pretend Authority of Doctors as Learned as Origen as Holy as Cyprian nay if he will of a whole Provincial Council as numerous as that in Africa which determin'd Rebaptization of persons Baptized by Hereticks they Reply we must not Innovate we must hold to what was taught us by our Ancestors What means then to make persons thus disposed to leave their anâ—ient Faith and admit of a Novelty You must prove to them that you and they and other Christians in several Countrys have been taught so to believe by your immediate Predecessors and uninterruptedly From Father to Son from the Apostles but then you cease to be a Teacher of Novelties contrary to the supposition Now that such was the disposition of the Primitive Centuries of Christianity hear S. Vincent Lerinensis who lived in the fifth Age who testifies that often asking of very many his Contemporaries famous for their Sanctity and Learning how he might be able to discern the truth of the Catholick Paith from the falsity of Heretical prayity he always received this Answer in a manner from them all That if he desired to remain sound in his Faith he must fortifie it first with the Authority of the divine Law and then with the Tradition of the Catholick Church That is as he explicates himself afterwards he must examin what has always all over the Christian Church and by all Christian Doctors or in a manner by all been believed and hold to that Against all Novelty though defended by private Doctors never so Holy or never so Learned or producing never so many Scriptures for themselves if interpreted after a new manner But saies the same S. Vincent chap 2. Here perhaps some body may ask seeing the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and is it self sufficient and more than sufficient for all things what need is there to add to it the Authority of the Ecclesiastical or Churches understanding of it Because the Holy Scripture by reason of its depth is not by all taken in one and the same sense For Photinus expounds it one way Sabellius another Donatus another Arrius another And ch 41. He tells us how the third general Council held in his days at Ephesus proceeding according to this rule condemn'd Nestorius For the Fathers of that Christian Synod in number about 200 having consulted the Sentiment of their Predecessors the eminent Doctors of the Oriental and Western Churches S. Peter of Alexandria S. Athanâ—sius S. Theophilus S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Basil S. Gregory Nâ—ssen S. Felix S. Julius S. Cyprian concerning their controversie in debate they resolved to hold their doctrin to follow their Counsel to believe their testimony to obey their Judgment Quae tandem c What were at length saies S. Vincent the Voices and Votes of them all but that what was antiently delivered should be kept what was of late invented should be exploded After which we admired and proclamed the great humility and sanctity of that Council In which so many Priests in a manner as to the greater part were so many Metropolitans and of so great Erudition and Learning as
years labour neither eloquence of false Teachers nor force of civil powers has been able so wholly to pervert our Nation as to the belief of that high mystery of the real presence but even still there remain a considerable number retainers of the antient belief And can you think that not in a much greater space of time to wit betwixt the sixth and nineth Century all the Christian world could be perswaded to admit so strange a doctrin to nature and reason and yet no man by vertue of History or Tradition should be able to give any account what Orators prevailed with the world to relinquish the belief of their Ancestors or what power of civil Magistrates forced them to it Especially seeing there have not wanted Ecclesiastical Historigraphers who have made mention of matters of far less note than such a change of Faith must needs have made But what place will there remain for doubting that this high mystery was always believed if not only all writers be silent as to any change but also the seventh and eighth Age yea the most Primitive times do positively attest this very mystery by the pens of the chiefest Champions of the Christian Church who have left us any memorials of their learning and piety in their deservedly admired works I shall faithfully recount their words be your own judge what their sentiment was In the first place then glorious Saint and great Doctor S. Augustin tell us your Faith concerning the Holy Eucharist Is it Bakers bread or the body of our Lord and God I remember saies the holy Doctor in his 28. Ser. de verbis Domini when I treated of the Sacraments I told you that before the words of Christ that which is offered up is called Bread but when the words of Christ shall have been pronounced now it is no longer called bread but the body of Christ. And explicating those words of the Royal Prophet Psal. 98. v. 5. Exalt ye our Lord God and adore his foot-stool for it is holy Now what is this Foot-stool of God why saies this great Doctor The Earth is his Foot-stool But how is the Earth holy and to be adored by us The Saint goes on and tells us how Our Lord took Earth of the Earth because Flesh is of the Earth and he took Flesh of the Flesh of Mary And because he walked here in Flesh and gave to us that very Flesh to be eaten by us to our Salvation but no body eats that Flesh unless he shall first have adored it And indeed what could we expect that S. Austin should teach and believe concerning this divine Sacrament but what he had been taught by his Father and Instructor in Christ the glorious St. Ambrose And what was that Hear his words lib. 4. De Sacramentis Thou wilt perhaps say nnto me my Bread is ordinary Bread but that bread is bread before the Sacramental words but when Consecration has been made of bread it is made the Flesh of Christ. But how can bread be the body of Christ By Consecration Consecration by what and whose words is it perfected By the words of our Lord Jesus For all other things which are said Praise is given to God By prayer supplication is made for the people for Kings for the rest When the time is come that the Venerable Sacrament is to be made now the Priest does not use his own words but the words of Christ therefore the word of Christ makes this Sacrament But what word of Christ That word by which all things were made Our Lord commanded and Heaven was made our Lord commanded and the Earth was made Our Lord commanded and the Seas were made Our Lord commanded and every Creature was produced Doest thou see then how operative the word of Christ is If then there be so great force in the word of our Lord Jesus that it could make things which were not begin to be how much rather is it operative that those things which were should be and be charged into another thing Heaven was not the Sea was not the Earth was not but hear him saying He said the word and they were made he commanded and they were Created That therefore I may Answer thee the body of Christ was not before Consecration bâ— after Consecration I say unto thee that now the Body of Christ is He said it and it was made He commanded and it was Created And in chap. 5. of the same Book Before the words of Christ the Chalice is full of Wine and Water but when the words of Christ have bad their operation then it is made the blood which Redeemed the people See then in how many kinds of things the word of Christ is able to change all things Moreover our Lord Jesus himself testifies unto us that we receive his body and blood ought we then to doubt of his testification Add to S. Austin and S. Ambrose the Learned S. Hierom in his Epistle ad Heliodorum Far be it from me saies the Saint that I should speak amiss of those who succeeding the Apostles do make the body of Christ with their sacred mouth And in his 85. Epistle to Enagrius By whose prayers the body and blood of Christ is made Take notice that these three Holy Fathers lived not four hundred years after our B. Saviours death S. Cyprian yet nearer the Apostles age does no less clearly nor fully attest the same verity in his Serm. de Caena Domini That bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples being changed not in shape but in its nature by the Omnipotency of the Word was made Flesh. And in his Book de Lapsis reprehending such as were angry with the Priests of God who refused to admit them to the holy Communion of the B. Sacrament after they had polluted themselves with the profane Sacrifices of Heathen Idolaters expresses their sin in these words He that has fall'n from his Faith threatens them that have stood firm Sacrilegious wâ—etch he is angry with the Priests of God that he is not prosently admitted with defiled hands to receive the Body of our Lord or to drink his blood with his defiled mouth And this was the very doctrin of his learned Master Tertullian who yet nearer approached the holy Apostles lib. de Resur cur The Flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ that the soul may be made fat with God And in his Book de Idololatria he complains of the prosaneness of some Christians who made no scruple to day to be working in their Shops making Idolatrous Statues for the Heathens and yet to morrow would presume to come into the Christian Congregations and receive the Sacred mysteries of our Lords body and blood and communicate them to others His words are these To touch the body of our Lord with those hands which give bodies to Devils Nor is this all their Crime would be less did they only receive from the hands of others what they contaminate and pollute
from their Master Jesus as to this point and their Converts their Children till Arrius the Church being till then under Persecution and consequently cannot be supposed all that vvhile so notoriously to have changed their Faith they vvere every day in danger to dye for Now finding the vvhole Christian World in the belief of the Divinity of our Saviour and Worshipping him as God and this immemorially from their Fore-fathers and as they professed from the Apostles So as Arrius never vvent about to evince them that such or such a Doctor in such an Age since the Apostles had brought in the nevv Doctrin of our Lords Divinity and finding him also called God in the Holy Scriptures and vvhole Nations of Christians immemorially understanding them in a proper literal sense and not only in the sense vvhich Kings and Princes are called God notvvithstanding all Arrius his reasons drawn from the Impossibility of the thing or from Scriptures understood by him after a nevv manner I conclude my Saviour vvas true God In like manner no doubt but our B. Saviviour taught his Apostles concerning the holy Eucharist whether it was only a sign of his body or else his true body and consequently to be adored and worshipt by them or no. And no doubt but they taught their first Converts what they had learnt from their Master concerning this mystery and these their Posterity the same for the first 300. years of the Churches Persecution Now finding whole Christian Countrys in the time of Berengarius about the year one thousand und fifty unanimously believing the holy Eucharist to be our Lords true body and adoring it as such and this as they professed immemorially from their Ancesters from the Apostles and Berengarius never undertaking to show when or how this strange belief was wrought in the Christian Church nor finding any beginning of it in any Ecclesiastical History of any one Country and finding it also called so expresly over and over our Lords body and whole Countrys understanding those sacred Texts in a proper sense and not one Christian Province understanding them otherwise for all Berengarius his Arguments drawn as he pretended from the impossibility of the thing or from Scriptures by him interpreted after a new manner the wont of all misbelievers I conclude it is our Lords true body 5. Let us consider impartially the testimony of the present Church in communion with the See of Rome which averrs the Holy Eucharist to be our B. Saviours true body Travel in your thoughts all over Europe Asia Africa and America and view well the vast multitudes of Roman Catholicks in the present Age and by the confession of our Adversaries in the ten last Ages Take notice of their circumstances of Learning Study Vertue Meditation Retiredness from all secular encumbrances as to vast multitudes of them the prodigies of Sanctity we profess to have appeared amongst us in several Ages like the extraordinary Prophets of old amongst the Jews to awaken drowsie souls Our Bennets Bernards Cuthberts Bedes Dominicks Francis's Ignatius's c. The miracles we undoubtedly believe in every Century since the Apostles yea in this very Age wrought amongst us For which we have such Records as you have no way to evade but by saying they are forged without any further proof then your own uncharitable surmise Records of such wonders so publick and notorious as had they been false the Ages wherein they are said to have been wrought could not be ignorant of it und consequently could not unanimously have told their Posterity such notorious Lyes nor have recommended the Books to them wherein they are recounted as true stories Consider moreover how this numerous Congregation professes her self to be the Mistriss of Truth the Light of the World fitly for this end dispersed in all Countrys throughout all Ages with indefatigable Industry scattering the rayes of the Gospel by her Missionants throughout the whole Earth fearing no encounter but challenging the whole world to dispute of what they will and as long as they will of the most strange Articles of her Faith And then think if it could not stand with the providence of the all good God to permit one single person our Lord Jesus for three or four years in one small Country to Alarum the World with stupendious miracles and doctrins of Sanctity unless he had been indeed a true Teacher Consider I say how it can stand with the providence of the same all good God to permit a Congregation made up of so many thousands for so many Ages so universally spread over the Earth accompanied with no less wonders if any credit can be given to such human testimony as never yet fail'd concerning matters of Fact if all this while this Congregation teaches damnable Idolatry and is the greatest Cheat that ever appear'd in the World and yet that the Divine providence should work nothing like miracles or singular and over-topping Sanctity in those who pretend to be raised up by him extraordinarily to discover to the deceived World this grand Imposture How can this stand with the Almightys desire that the World should not mistake the true Religion In confirmation of what I have said above I add these considerations 1. Let but any one take the pains to look into modern or antient Writers of Ecclesiastical History which he may do in a little time and without any great labor by looking in the Index the word Eucharistia or some such head and he shall find that whensoever there has been any dispute concerning this mystery some one or few opposed it and all the rest of the Country stood up in defence of it as of a doctrin they had immemorially been taught by their Ancestors An evident conviction that the antient Faith of that Country was that indeed the Holy Eucharist was our B. Saviours body and blood and the denial of this mystery was a Novelty For example let him consult Ecclesiastical Historiographers what happen'd about the year one thousand and fifty and he shall find that one Berengarius Arch-deacon of the Church of Angiers oppugned this mystery but not as a new doctrin then endeavored by some Bishop or other to be imposed upon the people but as then generally believed a clear sign that his own Opinion was a new Error and the common Faith of the Country was the antient Christian verity Now let him in the whole History of the Catholick Church Greek and Latin find me but one instance in any one Christian Country on the contrary and I 'le yield him the cause That is any one Doctor Bishop or Priest that about such a year of our Lord in such a Country began to Preach the mystery of the real presence upon pretence of clear Scripture for it or other Arguments and that he was opposed by the whole Country as a Teacher of a new strange doctrin they had never heard of before or else that upon such a Doctors appearing they presently yielded to the force
of his Reasons and Arguments and relinquished their former antient Faith Which notwithstanding certainly must have happen'd not only in one but in all Christian Countries were the doctrin of the Real presence a new invention and the denial of it the antient Christian Faith Else how came all Christendom according to the confession of our Adversaries for many Ages universally to believe it Now can any one imagin that the belief of so strange a mystery and which in practice makes all the Believers of it Idolaters unless it be true could be introduced both into the Greek and Latin Church without any opposition or if it were opposed that no one Writer in any one Country should make mention who they were that opposed it and how they lost their cause And this though there have not wanted Writers of what has happen'd in the Christian Church who have made mention of far lesser accidents in any Age wherein this belief can be pretended to have been brought in nay which have taken notice in several Ages and Countries how certain deniers of this mystery have attempted the bringing in of their new doctrin by whom they were opposed and how they were silenced Read our own Chronicles about the year 1370. concerning John Wiclef and see whether he was not opposed by all the Bishops and Priests of our English Church as a teacher of a doctrin contrary to what they had been taught by their Ancestors when he began to teach our Lord's body was not in the Eucharist And then reflect with your self if the doctrin of the Real presence was not taught our Nation when we were first converted to Christianity how comes it to pass that all our Chronicles should be silent when or by whom we were taught this mysterious doctrin and what assistance they had from the civil power so unversally to impose upon our Country such a strange belief which in all reason require a far greater power to make it prevail then the contrary doctrin And yet you see where the contrary doctrin is believed it cost no small pains and force and time to introduce it nor has all this neither been able to make it Universal in so much as in one Christian Province Make the like Reflexion upon the City of Rome and consider that in the Apostles daies they believed aright concerning this great mystery and for some hundreds of years according to the concession of our Adversaries Now this great and Cultivated City has memorials of what has past in it as we have of what has past in London and yet they make no mention of any one that ever began since their first Conversion to Christianity to teach this strange doctrin and worship of the holy Eucharist but that they have immemorially from S. Peter believed and adored it as the body of their Saviour and God Nor indeed can it be imagin'd how they could ever possibly change their first Faith having ever opposed all Teachers of Novelties with that Answer of S. Stephen Pope to the Clergy of Africa concerning Rebaptization never heeding all their seeming Reasons or Texts of Scripture understood after a new manner as S. Vincent Lirinensis observes Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est We must Innovate nothing but stick to the doctrin delivered to us by out Ancestors When think you should we in London be brought universally to believe the Real presence if we were resolved for ever tenaciously to adhere to the doctrin taught us by our immediat Predecessors notwithstanding whatsoever Argument should be brought against us from Reason or Scripture 2. Consider how our Adversaries would triumph over us could they find but one City in the whole world which should prosess to have believed immemorially since their first Reception of the Christian Faith as they do concerning the Holy Eucharist and all their Cronicles were either silent or positively testified as much and we were not able positively to shew when they began their Faith but should Answer their Chronicles were corrupted or antient Records lost or by little and little they left off imperceptibly believing as they were first taught But if to all this they could produce in several Ages how such a Doctor upon pretence of cleer Scripture endeavor'd to make them leave their antient Faith but they still retained it opposing to all his seeming strong Arguments that thus they had been taught time out of mind by their Ancestors from their first Conversion to Christian Religion and to understand those Scriptures otherwise But if to all this they could produce in several Ages Recorded miracles in confirmation of their Faith and we should have nothing to reply but that these miracles were feigned Think if they would not return upon us that such wild Answers open'd a way to Atheists to deny all the miracles of Moyses and our B. Saviour And then consider impartially whether this be not our Case 3. Consider though our Adversaries but very irrationally deny any miracles to have been wrought in our Church yet they cannot deny but we have Records without number of notorious and most evident miracles and such Records as in civil matters no body questions Men for example of good judgment and honest repute attesting upon their Oaths that upon such a day such and such miraculous events happen'd they were eye-witnesses of them c. And then reflect how it can stand with the providence of God and his desire of mankinds worshipping him according to his will to permit even such Records of miracles in a false Church For certainly a sincere desirer to find out the Truth must needs be strangely enclin'd to give credit to such Records and which moreover he should find to be credited by persons of as good judgment and integrity as himself in all Christian Provinces in Communion with the See of Rome And indeed such Records of false miracles would be as apt to deceive impartial judicious Enquirers as even the sight of false miracles themselves For why are we so assured our senses cannot deceive us Is it not because we never experienced them to fail us in due circumstances and also because if we should be necessitated by them to judge of things otherwise than they are God Almighty who has so made our senses would be the cause of our mistake which were to tell a real lye And did Tradition duely circumstantiated ever yet fail And would not God Almighties providence in the government of man-kind be deficient it being necessary for us to know certainly not only things that are present to us which we do by our senses but also things that are distant from us both in place and time which we can only know by the report of others if no assured certain credit could be given to the restimony of men though never so many in number and of never so good repute Especially when he obliges us to be of a Religion which was taught our Ancestors 1600. years before we were Born