regard of Signification or resignificata the Manna and Rock were the same to them that the Bread and Cup are to us to wit Sacramental Symbols of the same Things differing only signis modo significandi 2. This same Meat which they did eat and Drink which they did drink was Spiritual Meat and Drink i. e. not in Nature or Substance but in Signification and Representation Ob spiritualem significationem 3. This same Spiritual Meat and Drink was Christ 1. Not Corporally Substantially and Essentially 2. But Symbolically Symbolum erat Christi representing and exhibiting the same Christ and Grace of Christ to them that the Supper doth to us 4. They ate this same Spiritual Meat and drank this same Spiritual Drink That is 1. All of them ate this same Meat Sacramentally Ore. 2. Some of them i. e. Believers ate it Spiritually also Fide. Thus the Church of the Jews ate the same Spiritual Meat that we do And this doth evidently prove the Popish Transubstantiation to be a meer Fiction 4. Arg. If the Bread be converted into the Body of Christ then not only wicked Men but Dogs and Hogs Rats and Mice may eat the real Body of Christ and consequently according to their Principles have Eternal Life That they may eat the true Body of Christ is plain for they may eat that that remains after the Consecration and after this there remains nothing but 1. The Accidents of the Bread these cannot be eaten 2. The Body of Christ this therefore must be eaten by them What say they to this 1. None of them deny but the Consecrated Host may be eaten by any of these or other Vermin As is evident from the Cauteles of the Mass wherein they do not deny these gross Absurdities or as they call them Inconveniences but appoint certain Rules to be observed about them and go about to salve them 2. But yet they are miserably divided and confounded among themselves Some say that the Mice Rats c. do not eat the Body of Christ others say they do Some that the Body of Christ vanishes as soon as ' ere the Teeth of the Mouse touch the Host some that the Substance of the Bread returns Others that a new Substance is created which the Mouse eats and others God only knows quid mus sumat vel quid manducet what the Mouse eats and what becomes of the Body of Christ when the Mouse eats the Host Thus they are driven to monstrous Shifts And as ill are they set with the Worms and Vermin that breed in the Host when it is over-long kept which are generated either of the Air about the Host or the Accidents of the Bread or of the Substance of the Bread returned or of Matter then created or introduced from some other Body or they know not how Portentu Opinionum 5. If there be any Transubstantiation Then the Body of Christ is daily created Either 1. Out of the Substance of the Virgin. Or 2. Out of the Substance of the Bread. Or 3. Out of nothing But they will not tell us of which 6. If the Bread be turned into the Body of Christ then as often as they Communicate the Body of Christ is 1. Turned into the Substance of their Bodies Or 2. Totally annihilated Or 3. Flyes away to Heaven Or 4. Unknown what becomes of it But 1. Not the First for then they should be Hypostatically united to the Divine Nature 2. Nor the Second as some of them grant 3. Not the Third for then who can tell how many Millions of Christs are this Day in Heaven Therefore no Body knows what becomes of it I have now given as plain a Representation of Transubstantiation as I could as it is received in the Church of Rome with the Sandy Foundations it is built upon and a few of the many Arguments that do clearly evert and overturn it I shall now shut up all in a few Words If it be asked What need was there of this or what use may it be of unto us I say this strange Monster Transubstantiation setteth before us matter First Of Information and may inform us 1. Of the amazing Apostacy of the Church of Rome and those that are devoted to her Communion Here was once a famous and flourishing Church a Church honoured by the Apostle with this high Testimony that her Faith was spoken of throughout the whole World Rom. 1.8 i. e. in all the Churches through the World. And that her Obedience was come abroad unto all Men Rom. 16.19 Thus she was once famous all the Christian World over for her exemplary Faith and Obedience Who could have thought that ever such a Monster as this should have had its Conception in and been born of her Womb and being born have been owned by her taken into her Belief and made one of the most important Articles of her Faith Yet alas so it is Oh how is the Gold become dim How is the most fine Gold changed How is she that was once a pure Virgin and the chaste Spouse of Christ become the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth Rev. 17.5 2. Of the Genius and Nature of Popery or Rome's Religion at this Day It would be a tedious work to describe it in the several Parts and Members of it But we may know a Lion by his Paw and so what Popery is a Religion more after Homer than after the Scripture As Mr. Broughton by this one piece or part of it or from this Monster that is maintained in it This alone if what is said be considered and weighed impartially may give any Man enough of Popery Be a sufficient Disswasive from Popery For if all were well to this and nothing but Transubstantiation with its Appendices lying in the way yet Transubstantiation alone is such a foul mishapen terrible and dreadful Spectrum Hagg or Night-Ghost as is sufficient to fright all that are not either stark blind or stark mad out of their witts already from a thought of looking that way 3. How sadly the Common People are misled and what strange Absurdities and Contradictions they do ignorantly receive and implicitly believe in the thick Darkness they are brought into and kept in What can be more ridiculously absurd than this Fiction Yet through their own wonderful Ignorance and the thin Sophistry of their Leaders it is received without any hesitation by them as a great Mystery and so indeed it is but of Iniquity 4. What strange and strong Delusions Men and Men of Parts and Learning may be given up unto It is not to be denied that many of the Romanists have been Men of vast Parts and Learning nor to be doubted but many of them are so Yet they not receiving the Truth but minding their Secular Advantages and making Religion to serve a corrupt carnal worldly Interest have been given up to such a strong Delusion as to believe this grand Cheat and impose it upon the Faith of others Oh! to what a
spiritual but to chimerical or phantastical nor intending his presence in the Elements as contained in them but to the Faith of the Receiver who hath Vnion with him c. Vines on the Sacrament p. 118. We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the Faith of the Receiver and we might express the real Presence as real is opposed to imaginary or chimerical were it not for Caption and Misunderstanding None of ours deny the Body of Christ to be really the spiritually eaten by a Believer c. Id. 125. We do positively and constantly assert and believe that the Body and Blood of Christ are present in the Sacrament in the following Sense that is that Christ is present not only in regard of 1. His Divinity or Divine Nature which is in all Places and indistantly present with every Being 2. His Spirit by whose Operation the Benefits of Christ are applied to Believers 3. Our Commemoration of him and shewing forth of his Death in this Action As things that are past and absent are made in a sort present to us by a Solemn Commemoration 4. Our Meditations and Contemplations of him in this Action As Contemplation brings the Object of it before the Eyes of the Mind and presents it to them 5. Our Affections that are or should be here fixed upon him The Heart and Affections fixing upon an Object make it present bring it to have a kind of Being with them The Apostle Paul Phil. 1.7 tells the Philippians that he had them in his Heart Tho in regard of his Personal Presence he was at a great distance from them yet in regard of his dear Affection unto them they were in his very Heart And so in this Ordinance Jesus Christ and the Affections of true Christians do meet I add that 6. The Body and Blood of Christ are present yet not 1st Locally per indistantium as included in or affixed to the Elements as the Wine is in the Cup. In this Sense they are as far distant from the Elements as the place where the Sacrament is celebrated is distant from Heaven Nor 2dly Substantially or Corporally This follows on the former The Signs are with us but the Substance is in Heaven But they are thus truly and really present 1. Sacramentally and Symbolically in the sacred Signs and Symbols of them His real Body is in Heaven but we have his representative Body present with us in the Sacrament Here the corporal Signs of it are corporally present 2. Vertually in their Vertue and Efficacy or by a Vertual Presence and an Efficacious Influence as the Body of the Sun is present not only upon the Surface but in the Bowels of the Earth Deut. 33.14 Thus there is a true and real Vertue Power and Efficacy of his Body and Blood really present Yea the Vertue and Efficacy of his Body and Blood the benefits of his Passion are no less present and communicated to Believers than if he were locally present In actione Coenae praesens est Dominus non in Signo nec pani participato sed cordi participantis non exhibitione carnis vel animae suae sed exhibitione spiritus gratiae quae non ore excipiantur sed fide cujus est id sibi praesens reddere quod apprehendit ut oculus quod videt Spanh Dub. Evang. part 3. Dub. 143. p. 839. The Presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the Soul and Faith of a Believer is another Vines 125. 3. Spiritually that is not in respect of their Essence but of our perceiving and receiving of them and their Vertue and Efficacy in nourishing us The Spirits or Souls of Believers by Faith only do receive them and by them through the Efficacy of the Holy Spirit are truly and really nourished to Spiritual and Eternal Life Thus the Body and Blood of Christ are really present Non pani ori sed fidei cordi credentium As August Nos Christum in Coelis sedentem manu contrecture non possumus sed Christum fide contingere possumus Et haec praesentiae spiritualis corporis Christi est verissima realissima Wend. Theol. 516. And thus we assert and believe that the Body of Christ is truly and really present in this threefold Sense but we do utterly disown and detest this real or corporal Presence of the Papists in or under the Signs which is the Daughter of Transubstantiation a Daughter like her Mother i. e. a very Monster repugnant to the nature of a Sacrament the end of the Lord's Supper to the nature of a true Human Body to the state of Christ's glorious Body to the Ascension of Christ to Heaven and as is before shewed to the express Testimony of the Scriptures And this is the First-born of Transubstantiation and I may say of it as the Martyr Elizabeth Folks said who when asked Whether she believed the Presence of Christ's Body to be in the Sacrament substantially and really or no answered That she believed it was a substantial Lye and a real Lye. Or as Thomas Watts Martyr who being examined by Bishop Bonner about the Sacrament of the Altar told him That he believed Christ's Body to be in Heaven and no where else and that he would never believe that it was in the Sacrament And that the Mass was abominable Idolatry Secondly The Multipresence or manifold Presence of Christ's Body This is another Birth of Transubstantiation and it is fruitful this way to a Wonder yea to a Miracle It is recorded in Story as a thing that was very monstrous and miraculous that Margaret of Holland Countess of Hausburg brought forth 364 Children at one Birth Belg. Com. Wealth p. 127. But this was a sorry thing to be stranged at Behold here Transubstantiation bringing forth ten times so many Christs on a Day and Day after Day without any intermission for one Day in a whole Year By this miraculous power of Transubstantiation and the wonderful fecundity of her Womb it comes to pass 1. That Christ is not only in Heaven but upon the Earth at the same time 2. That he is not only both in Heaven and Earth but also in many parts and places of the Earth at the same time In England France Spain Italy America and no Body knows in how many places at once Yea 3. That he is in several Parts and Corners of the same Church at once in one Man's Hand in another Man's Mouth in a third Man's Pyx and Pocket c. And in their private Masses which are celebrated in several Corners of the same Church and the Body of Christ created in six or seven Corners at once Nay 4. That he is in several parts of the same Host at once For they tell us in plain English and without any Circumlocution that he is whole in every Crumb and Point of the Host and in every Drop of the Wine And if so who can tell
2. The manner of our Saviour's expressing himself in this matter doth also prove it For that he directed his Speech to the Disciples and spoke these Words to them of the Bread is past all dispute But common Sense will tell us That if our Saviour had intended any such thing as a Popish Consecration and Transubstantiation by them he would have directed his Speech to God the Father in this or the like Form Let this Bread be my Body or to the Bread saying Be thou my Body and not to the Disciples 3. The Words of our Saviour This is my Body are Words of Signification not of Transubstantiation assertive and declarative not operative and conversive Words I say they are declarative Words of that which is signifying what the Bread is before the Words be pronounced and not imperative and effective of that which is not but shall be after they are pronounced that is they signify that the Bread is his Body before and not only after they are pronounced The Romanists being pluched with this do some of them as is shewed by Duâ—and Rut. l. 4. r. 41. n. 15. and Thom. par 3. q. 78. Art. 1. make this Evasion That Christ in the institution of this Sacrament used these Words twice first secretly to consecrare the Communion and then openly to instruct the Communicants in this order 1. He took the Bread 2. He blessed it by saying This is my Body and then 3. He brake it and gave it saying Take eat This is my Body first he used it to Consecrate and then the second time to shew his Apostles the form of Consecration This they say but if we will not be so kind as to take their bare word they can never prove it 4. There is as good ground to infer and conclude that our Saviour is really and substantially changed into a Door a Vine a Rock a Foundation a Lamb a Lion a Rose a Star a Sun c. from Joh. 10.7 Joh. 15.1 1 Cor. 10.4 Isa 28.16 Joh. 1.29 Revel 5.5 Cant. 2.1 Rev. 22.16 Mal. 4.2 as there is to infer Transubstantiation from these words 5. If it were true as it is not that our Lord Jesus Christ did convert the Bread into his Body by pronouncing these words over it yet how doth it follow That the massing Priest doth the same by saying over the same words Till they can prove that their Priests have this Power from Christ lodged in them it may more rationally be inferred that as often as they read these words Let there be Light they make Light by reading of them because God did make it by them 6. The true meaning of the words This is my Body is not then as the Romanists say this that was Bread is now transubstantiated into my Body For when he said This is my Body by This he meant and understood that which he then held in his Hands now when he pronounced the word This he held nothing but Bread in his Hands and therefore by This he meant the Bread that he had in his Hands and gave and commanded them to eat as before But the meaning is This Bread I have taken blessed broken and give you to take and eat is my Body that is a sacred Sign of my Body my Body Sacramentally and Symbolically as much as to say a Representation and Memorial of my Body The Change is in Signification not of Substance in regard of Use and Office not of Nature and Being It remains to be Bread as it was before in Nature and Substance and is the Body of Christ in Signification and Representation which it was not before Yet this is not a bare Significative Form as this The Field is the World Mat. 13.38 i. e. signifies the World Or as that Rev. 1.20 The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches and the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches i. e. do signify the seven Angels and Churches and many such like But it is a Sacramental Form wherein together with the Representation and Signification there is a real Exhibition of the Thing signified The Bread is his Body a representing exhibiting and conveying Sign of his Body at once both representing and exhibiting and conveying Christ crucified with the Benefits of his Cross and Passion to the Faith of a true Christian or Believer We come to the Reasons alledged for the Popish Sense First They say Christ spoke clearly and plainly so as the Disciples might easily understand his meaning 1. And I say so also It is not to be called once into question whether our Lord spoke plainly and apertly so as the Disciples might understand him or no. 2. I say moreover that it is as unquestionable that the Disciples did both readily and well understand our Lord's words and also in the Sense that we understand them Cum istis verbis non sint turbati planum est intellexisse ea metonymicè ex more Scripturae praesertim cùm paulo antè comedissent Agnum qui eodem sensu Pascha id est transitus appellatur Exod 12.27 Bucan Loc. Com. Loc. 48. q. 50. this can be no more doubted of by any that are not prepossessed with their own Sense than the other For they were both acquainted with the Language of the Scripture wherein our Sense of these Words of our Saviour is very ordinary and frequent in many Propositions and Expressions and they were also acquainted with their own Language that hath not as is observed any proper word for signify but makes use of is instead thereof whence this Stile and Sense was usual and common among them an ordinary form of Speech Besides all this the Disciples never questioned their Lord and Master about the meaning of this Proposition whereas we find them often asking him of the meaning of Speeches that he used which were incomparably more easy for them to understand than the meaning of these words if they had apprehended or suspected them to carry any thing of such a meaning in them as the Papists put upon them And therefore I say again 3. That this Reason they bring for their Sense of them doth quite destroy and overthrow their Sense of them if he spoke plainly and so as the Disciples might well understand his meaning when he said This is my Body as they say he did then certainly he did not mean that the Bread he had in his Hand was transubstantiated and converted into his real Body and that his very Body was contained under that Form of Bread in his Hand For verily this is a Sense not easie to be understood but must without all question have startled amused and posed them all exceedingly to conceive or understand how he could fit at the Table with them as they saw he did and at the same time give to every one of them his whole Body to be eaten and his Blood to be drunk yea to eat his own Body and drink his own Blood before their very Faces this would
and whereof he that eateth shall live for ever If it be said this cannot be his Meaning for he delivered this Sermon before his Passion yet speaks of an eating and drinking that was a present Duty so that he could not have this Meaning I say it is true Passiō Christi profuit antequam fuit Beneficia Christi valent tam antrorsum quam retrorsum Ex eo tempore valet ad servandum genus humanum ex quo in Adam est vitiatum Aug. both that Christ spake this before his Passion and the eating he speaks of was a present Duty But what then distinguish between the Time of his Death and the Merit of his Death and the Difficulty is solved He is the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World. Rev. 13.8 i. e. In regard of the Merit Fruits and Efficacy of his Death and the Faith of Believers Not only before his Passion but before his Incarnation the Fathers did all eat the same Spiritual Meat and did all drink the same Spiritual Drink For they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them And that Rock was Christ 1. Cor. 10.3 4. Abraham saw his Day Joh. 8.56 And the Apostle giveth this Account of him Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 3. In what Respect he here calls them by the Names of Bread Meat and Drink 1. Not in regard of their Nature and Substance As if the very Flesh and Blood of Christ were according to the bare sound of the Words very Meat and Drink such as our Corporeal Food is But 2. In regard of their Effect the saving Benefits of his Flesh and Blood or Passion nourish the Souls of the Faithful and preserve them unto Eternal Life even as Corporal Meat that we eat doth minister Aliment to our Bodies and preserve our Natural Lives And thus as it is the Property of Meat and Drink to maintain the Lives of them that eat and drink thereof and as whatsoever being eaten and drunk doth maintain Life is therefore called Meat and drink So it is the proper Nature of the Fruits and Effects of his Body and Blood to nourish the Souls of them that partake thereof to Eternal Life And therefore for their performing that to Souls which Meat and Drink do to Bodies he calls them by the Names of Meat and Drink 4. What kind of eating and drinking this is that he speaks of Or what our Saviour means by eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood What this Manducation of this Spiritual Meat is Per manducationem nihil aliud intelligit quam actum fidei qui consistit in apprehensione applicatione beneficiorum Christi And this is only Spiritual eating by Faith extra Sacramentum without the use of the Sacramental Signs The Romanists confess that he speaks of this kind of eating in this Chapter from the 32d to the 50th verse but then from ver 50. to 59. of eating Orally and Corporally But we say he speaketh only of Spiritual Manducation in this Chapter which doth consist in a partataking by Faith of the Merit and Virtue of his Death the Fruits and Effects of his Passion for us And thus a true Believer eats the Flesh and drinks the Blood of Christ Spiritually when he 1. Believes that Christ's Body was Crucified and his Blood shed for him for the Remission of Sins And 2. Believeth that by this Passion Jesus Christ hath obtained Remission of Sins and Eternal Life for them that do unfeignedly believe in him And when 3. By this true and lively Faith he doth embrace and close with Jesus Christ apply him to himself and from him thus received or manducated receiveth a daily Confirmation and Increase of Spiritual Life and Growth Thus then 1. The Meat our Lord speaketh of is Spiritual Meat 2. This Spiritual Meat is the saving Good prepared for us by the Body and Blood of Christ crucified for us 3. He calls these Fruits of his Passion his Body and Blood because they are obtained by and rise out of his Flesh and Blood sacrificed on the Cross 4. This eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood which he calls by the Names of Bread Meat and Drink is a Spiritual manducating or eating by Faith. This is our Saviour's Sense which is embraced by the true Protestants or Calvinists as Bellarmine calls them Secondly The Popish Sense of this Sermon This is hinted before And in short 1. They confess that the kind of Meat he speaketh of is Spiritual Meat But then they affirm 1. That this Meat is truly and properly the true and proper Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ And 2. That this eating is an Oral and Corporal eating of his true and proper Flesh and Blood. A Manducation that is performed by Mouth 3. That the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ is thus eaten orally and corporally by the Communicants in the Eucharist This is their constant Tenet that in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the Forms of Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are received orally and corporally and that is eaten this is drunk 4. That this Bodily eating and drinking in the Sacrament is the eating and drinking that is properly and primarily meant by our Lord in this Sermon Et de quâ agitur This is the Mind of the Romanists Now in the next Place I am to shew Thirdly That our Lord Jesus Christ in this Sermon is not treating properly of the Sacrament and Sacramental eating and drinking of his Flesh and Blood much less is he here teaching the Popish Doctrine of Oral and Bodily eating and drinking his true and proper Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament In this Point we have the Consent of the Lutherans Hoc caput non proprie per se ad doctrictrinam de Coena pertinet Chemn Harm p. 1134. De spirituali comestione Dominus ait nisi manducaveritis carnem filii hominis biberitis ejus sanguineni non habebitis vitam in vobis De Myst Missae l. 4. c. 14. yea we have the Suffrage of divers learned Papists who quit this Argument and positively affirm That our Saviour in this Chapter doth not treat of the Sacrament As Biel in Can. Missae Card. Cajetan in Thom. par 3. q. 80. Art. 8. Card Cusan Ep. 7. ad Bohemos and many others Insomuch that Maldonatus on John 6.53 complains sadly that some Catholicks chose to think and speak in this Controversy as Hereticks rather than as the Orthodox and tho he forbear to name them yet he gives their Character in these Words Scio Catholicos scio Doctos scio Religiosos ac Probos Viros esse So that by the Jesuits own Confession we have Catholicks and Catholicks that are Learned and Religious and Honest good Men on our side Yet if this be nothing we have not only learned Men but an Infallible Pope voting for us and expounding our Lord's Words as we do viz. Innocent the