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A26931
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Full and easie satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference between D. a doubter, P. a papist, and R. a reformed Catholick Christian : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing B1272; ESTC R15922
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117,933
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211
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other Ordinances as in the Eucharist Nor know I what they mean by the Forms of bread and wine under which they say that Christs Body and blood is given But I am past doubt that Bread and Wine are still really in substance there And whereas the same men say that It is Christs humbled flesh and blood as sacrificed on the Cross that is Commemorated but his Glorified Body and soul only which are Communicated and Received I must say 1. That Christ plainly tells us of his Giving us his Sacrificed Body or flesh it self to eat as he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World And he saith Take Eat this is my Body which is broken for you c. so that the same body is Commemorated and Communicated But how Communicated In the effects of his sacrifice His Body was given a sacrifice to God for us and the fruits of that sacrifice given to us And thus he was given a sacrifice for the life of the world And thus we do receive him By our bodily taking and eating the Bread we profess that our souls take him to be our Saviour and Cause of our Life both as Purchasing and Meriting it on Earth and Interceding and Communicating it in and from Heaven 2. And this Doctrine will not serve the Papists turn who tell us that Bread and Wine are ceased and that Christs very flesh and blood is there into which all the substance of the bread and wine are turned and that his natural Body before his death was in the same sort given under the forms of Bread and Wine as now and will not be beholden to this subterfuge And indeed it is strange if the Sacrament at the first Institution should be One thing and ever after another thing and that the Bread should ever since be turned into Christs body upon the Priests Consecration and not be turned into it because not yet glorified upon his own words This is my Body Therefore we must let this go and speak of what they own and hold indeed And as for any other Bodily presence influence or communication of Christs Body or Soul besides that which they call Transubstantiation we have nothing to do with it in this Controversie That the substance of the Bread and Wine is not turned into the substance of the flesh and blood of Christ is proved I. Because the Glorified Body of Christ is not formally and properly Flesh and Blood Though it be the sâ—me Body which was Flesh and Blood The Apostle Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.50 51. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God nor doth corruption inherit incorruption Behold I shew you a mysterie We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed It is not only Dr. Hammond but other of the best expositors who shew that by Flesh and blood and corruption here is not meant sin but flesh and blood formally considered which is ever corruptible And the Papists commonly confess this If therefore it be flesh and blood which the bread and wine are turned into then either Christ hath two bodies or two parts of one which are utterly heterogeneal one flesh and blood and the other not one corruptible and the other incorruptible II. And this feigneth Christ to be often Incarnate even thousands and millions of times And to lay down that Incarnate body again as oft as it corrupteth and to take up a new one as oft as the Priest please and yet all but one Whereas the Church and Scripture have ever told us but of one Incarnation of Jesus Christ III. And it is expresly contrary to his promise Joh. 6.51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever And the bread which I give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world v. 34. Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that Eateth me even he shall live by me He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever These are the express promises of Christ But the Papists say that wicked men and unbelievers eat the flesh of Christ who shall not live for ever nor have eternal life nor dwell in Christ but are more miserable by their hypocrisie I pass by abundance of other arguments because commonly used and these are as many as my ends require and I would make the Reader no more work than needs CHAP. XI The Conclusion of the first Book The Causes of Popery R. I Have now made plain to you 1. What the Protestants Religion is or at least my own and all that I perswade you or any other to embrace 2. And also that it is granted to be all true by the generality of the Papists as is explained and proved 3. And I have told you by an enumeration of some particulars why I am not a Papist and why I do disswade you from it 4. And I have made good my first charge in the point of Transubstantiation if any thing in the world can be proved The second I shall leave till another time viz. To shew you how far their Religion as Popish is from Infallible Certainty and what horrid confusion is among them and how they have done much to promote Infidelity in the world by building Religion upon some notorious untruths and upon a multitude of utter uncertainties Though I doubt not but among them there are many true Christians who practically resolve their faith into the surer evidences of Divine Revelation yet I shall clearly prove to you that all those whose practical faith is no surer or better than the notional opinions of their Divines will allow have no certain faith or Religion at all And what impudency is it to make men believe that there is no certainty of Religion to be had but in their way who build their Religion upon such a multitude of uncertainties and certain falshoods as will amaze you when I come to open them to you viz. that ever so many Learned men and persons of all ranks can be induced so to jest in the matters of their salvation And if I be not by death or other greater work prevented I hope in order to make good all the rest of the Charges before mentioned which are our Reasons against the Popish way of Religion In the mean time tell me what you think of that which is already said D. I know not how to confute what you have said And yet when I hear them on the other side me thinks their tale seems fair and I cannot answer them neither so that between you both we that are unlearned are in a sad case who must thus be tost up and down by the disputations of disagreeing Priests so that we know not
body and that the eaten body turned into the substance of his eating body And yet all was but one XI It was a Miracle that Christs Eaten body being not dead but living with a humane soul should be broken and eaten by him and his disciples and yet feel no pain by it XII It was a Miracle that his whole body was on the Cross and yet part of it in the disciples bellies at that time or at least before that eaten by them XIII It was a Miracle or contradiction that Christs eaten body now nourisheth not the flesh of any man and yet did nourish the flesh of the disciples before his death Or if it did not nourish them it was a Miracle that what they eat and drank then did not nourish them or Christ what he eat and drank XIV It was a Miracle that the whole body of Christ should arise and live and ascend to Heaven when the disciples had eaten it XV. It is a Miracle that every Receiver eateth the whole body of Christ and not a part and yet that he hath but one body or that they eat each a part without dividing him XVI It is a Miracle that as soon as the species of Bread and Wine perish or cease in the Eater Christs body and blood ceaseth to be in him and this without his detriment XVII It is a Miracle that there is such a local distance between the consecrated bread and wine all over the world and yet no such distance between the parts of Christs body and yet that bread to be his body XVIII It is a Miracle that bread and wine is Annihilated or cease every Mass and yet that the quantity of corporeal matter in the whole world is no whit diminished or else that those four words can so annihilate and diminish the matter of the world XIX It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood increase not when so many millions of parcells of bread and wine are turned into it XX. It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood is not diminished when by the Corruption of the species of bread and wine it vanisheth away XXI It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood should be so received into the bowels of a wicked man and yet not be any way defiled by his sin nor by his bodily uncleanness XXII It is a Miracle that a Baker dispositively and a Priest effectually can make his own God and eat him when they have done XXIII It is a Miracle that when Worms are bred of that which was bread and wine these worms are really generated of nothing or created or if as some say the bread and wine do substantially return again and breed them that is another a double miracle XXIV And it is a Miracle that the Corporeal matter of the world should by these Worms be daily increased out of nothing or out of meer accidents that have no substance XXV It is a Miracle that men may be poysoned by the Sacramental Elements as ingredients in the mixture and yet that they are no substance XXVI It is a Miracle or Contradiction that when flesh and blood formally such enter not into the Kingdom of God but Glorified bodies are all spiritual bodies though not Spirits and therefore not flesh and blood Yet Christs body in the Sacrament should be truly and properly flesh and blood and yet the same with his glorified body which is not flesh and blood which is the Papists doctrine and the bread turned into such flesh XXVII It is a Miracle that the same Body which in Heaven is brighter in Glory than the Sun and exalted above Angels should yet shew no signs of Glory on the Altar in the Cup in the hand mouth or belly of him that taketh it but all its Glory be so hid XXVIII It is a Miracle or Contradiction that Christs Humiliation should be past and his whole Body Glorified and yet that to be torn with the teeth of a wicked man to be eaten by Mice Rats or Dogs to go into the filthy guts to be trodden in the dirt should be neither painful nor any diminution of the Glory of that same body Indeed his body on the Cross might be broken and his blood spilt and trodden on because he was a sacrifice for sin and it was the time of his Voluntary Humiliation But now for the suffering of death he is crowned with Glory and Honour Heb. 2.9 7. XXIX It is a Miracle that the Living Body of our Glorified Redeemer should give no evidence or sign of life neither stir nor speak nor have breath pulse warmth or other property of life appearing XXX It is a Miracle at least that flesh should have none of the common notes or properties of flesh not to be made of food of blood and chyme not to consist of the fibrae which flesh consisteth of not to have the colour taste odour or other such accidents of flesh And that Blood should have none of these notifying accidents of blood XXXI It is a Miracle or Contradiction that Christs Flesh was Broken before it was broken sacrificed before it was sacrificed I mean really broken and sacrificed at his Supper when yet he was whole and not really sacrificed till he was nailed to the Cross And so that his blood was really and properly shed in his Supper and yet no skin broken nor his blood really shed till his side was pierced on the Cross And that he that was but once offered and sacrificed should yet be offered and sacrificed once on one day and another time on another day Here are one and thirty Miracles or Contradictions Let us hear some of the Aggravations of them as worthy to be considered I. It is a Miracle of these Miracles that there should be as many Miracle workers as Priests in the world How many thousand are they in France alone And so in many other Countreys Whereas in Christs own time they were comparatively but few II. That the Pope or any Prelate can make a Miracle worker when he please yea a thousand as if the Holy Ghost were at his will III. It is a Miracle of these Miracles that a Simonist who buyeth the Priesthood with money doth buy the Holy Ghost to work Miracles for that money which Simon Magus was condemned for thinking possible For the Papists hold that the Consecration of a Simoniacal Priest transubstantiateth IV. It is a Miracle that all this power of Miracles should be given to flagitious wicked men Adulterers Murderers Drunkards c. V. It is a Miracle that all these men can work Miracles at their own will and pleasure at any hour whereas the Apostles had not the Spirit at command and could not do it when they would VI. It is a Miracle that Miracles should be as common as Masses or the Eucharistical worshipping of God not only on every Lords Day in all Church-assemblies but any day or hour else in the Week And so Miracles be as ordinary almost as to