also evident that our reception of them by Faith is every way as valid as beneficial and as effectual to Salvation as can be imagined in your Carnal Manducation Since it is the Spirit that quickneth and the Flesh profiteth nothing and it is not any action of the Body but the purity and sincerity of the Mind and Soul that God respects in any Holy Exercise and therefore it is this alone that ought to be regarded which unites a Man to Christ and brings down God's Gifts and Graces on him by a due reception of that Holy Sacrament § 15. But notwithstanding all this if you continue positive in this Opinion and will resolutely adhere unto that Man of Sin that Exalteth himself above all that is called God contradicting the Ordinances of Christ with a Non Obstante to his Institution of them And that sitteth as God in the Temple of God imposing Laws and Restrictions upon the Consciences of Men In so much that you may rationally suspect your self to have fallen into the state of those unhappy Persons to whom God hath sent a strong delusion that they should believe a lye and obstinately maintain these apparent Contradictions against all the force both of sense and reason That I may abate at least your fondness for this error or restrain that practice that against the Law of God is founded on it I will offer my second Proposition also to be considered That if those words of Christ This is my Body were to be taken in the literal sense as effecting such a change as against sense and reason is asserted to make the Proposition literally true Yet I say they will neither justifie your practice in worshiping the Host nor maintain the Doctrin of the Church of Rome as by the Council of Trent it is taught and explained For it is plain that those words of Christ in the most literal sense that they can bear can have no relation farther than to his Body only and this too in the most strict and limited notion of a Sacrifice wherein Mankind are made Partakers of it Since as your selves confess the design of the Institution was only this that all Men might become Partakers by it of the Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Altar of the Cross when he made a full atonement for the Sins of the whole World Now we know that the nature of a Sacrifice is such that it must be slain before it can be offered and consequently then this Body of Christ into which you do believe that the Elements are changed must be dead as well as broken and totally abstracted or separated from the Soul as it was offered up in Sacrifice to God and how this Body then in this very state and notion can be a proper Object for Divine Worship is a thing that deserves to be very well considered For it is very evident that it doth not contain the essence of a Man since that consists chiefly in his rational Soul that is departed from it and to which St. Augustine tells us that the Divinity was united And therefore though all his Sufferings in the Flesh are truly attributed to him as the Son of God because it was Christ that suffered who really was that Sacred Person yet when we say that he was buried it is an improper way of speaking as that Father observes and doth express no more but the burial of his Body only since it is evident that it was not the Person of Christ but only his Body that was subject to that Passion We generally look upon it as an infinite condescention in Almighty God that he united his Divine unto our Human Nature even in its greatest purity and perfection But to expect that this Divinity should be immediately united unto the grosser part of Man even his Body or Carcass when his Rational Soul is separated from it and when you cannot truly say that even the Human Nature continues extant there And much more to believe then that any Priest whatsoever can effect this condescention at his pleasure and by the introduction of a Material Substance only unite the Divine Nature to the accidents of Bread and Wine which must then be inherent in the whole Suppositum or subsist by themselves and so cease to be Accidents These are thoughts too hard to be entertained of God except he himself in every Circumstance had expresly declared and promis'd it in Scripture The Council of Trent therefore to avoid this difficulty hath joyned the Soul of Christ together with his Body to accompany his Divinity in the Sacrament Insomuch that I have heard a Doctor of Laws of that Communion declare that he believed that the Host after its Consecration was as rational discursive and visible as any Man But on what Authority all this Confidence is founded I profess I am in the dark as to its discovery For take those words of Christ this is my Body in any sense that they can bear and certainly nothing more than the Body of Christ can be exprest in them besides their Mystical signification and if you will limit this unto the notion of a Sacrifice as I shewed you must that will infer directly that his Soul must be excluded from it And surely then whosoever he is that pretends to Miracles to act not only beyond the Power and the very Conceptions of a Man but even directly against all sense and reason He ought to produce at least the Commission that God hath given him for to do such things with such ample Clauses and Expressions in it as confer that Power beyond all exception Otherwise Men cannot believe him that he is sent by God but will undoubtedly reject him and despise his Doctrin The Consequence then is this That even the most literal sense of Christ's words being granted yet the Consecrated Host is not to be adored But this constant practice of Worshiping it at Mass is a Crime not justifiable in any Christian being directly contrary to the first Commandment in the Law and our Saviours Confirmation of it in the Gospel where he hath expresly commanded us in these unquestionable terms Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. iv 10. § 16. There is one thing more that is observable in this branch of your Devotion which I think my self obliged to make Remarks on and that is the general state of the Congregation when the Mass is Celebrated before them For the Sacrament being daily Administred in the sight of all the People there appears an eminent danger even in going to Mass without such a Preparation for it as befits a Worthy Communicant Since if you consider seriously the Feast which the King made at his Son's Wedding as it is related in the Parable Mat. xxii 2. and is generally understood to represent the Blessed Sacrament wherein Christ is most especially united unto his Church You will find that the Person who is there Condemned was
briefly and compare our Faith and Practice in relation to the Sacrament which is the most Solemn branch of our Devotion For I shall ever acknowledge it as an obligation from you if you will be fair in this particular and communicate your own Thoughts freely without prevarication whether you can submit your Reason in this particular to that Doctrin of your Church that is so much against it Whither you can believe in your Conscience as it is openly profest that a Priest by Consecrating Bread and Wine according to the Missal can change their substance into that of God Or so Establish the Divinity in those Creatures or under the covert of their Accidents as really to make them or what you see upon the Table in their Shape to become a proper Object to be Worshipt and Adored For since nothing can be more absurd nor indeed more criminal in Religion than to apply God's Worship to any thing that is not God there is nothing less than a belief of this particular that can be pleaded by you to justifie your Practice when you Worship and Adore the Consecrated Host in the constant Exercise of your Publick Devotion Let us enquire therefore I beseech you into the foundation of this Faith and how this Notion which appears impossible to Mankind should come to have that Credit in the Church as to be made a Principle of the Christian Religion and not only be received as an Article of Faith but to be made the ground-work also of such a dangerous Practice § 8. The Church of Rome dogmatically tells us that our Blessed Saviour at the Institution of his Holy Supper changed the substance of the Bread and Wine into the substance of his own Body and Blood For saying of the Bread This is my Body and of the Wine This is my Blood and in both Expressions being literally to be understood by all Men his Expressions cannot be true except this change be really effected It being impossible in a literal Sense that the same thing at the same time can be real Bread and also the Body of Christ and therefore they believe that after the words of Consecration are pronounced Christ himself with his Body and Blood his Soul and his Divinity and not any longer Bread and Wine do really remain upon the Table and so they Adore the Consecrated Host as being really then the Person of Christ who is the Saviour God and Judge of all the World Now Sir if you will but seriously consider all those words which our Saviour Christ hath spoken on this Subject together with the end design and occasion of his speaking them it will not appear difficult to prove clearly to you First that those words of Christ are not thus literally to be interpreted but directly contrary to this Doctrin their true Sense is altogether Spiritual and Mystical And 2 â—ly That if they were literally to be understood by all Men even in the utmost Sense those words can bear yet they will neither assert what the Council of Trent Decrees nor justifie your Practice in Worshiping the Host § 9. First I say that the Words of our Saviour Christ in the Institution of this Sacrament cannot be understood in a literal Sense but must have a sigurative or mystical signification And this doth appear fully from the Nature of the thing the Design of the Institution the Occasion of the Expression and our Saviour's own Judgment as to their Interpretation As to the Nature of the thing it is a sufficient proof that any Text of Scripture is not literally to be understood by Christians if its common reading contradicts the Rules of Sense and Principles of Philosophy or destroys the ground-work of all certainty and knowledge and so roots up the foundation of Religion in general And if a Man by being a Christian is to take those words of Christ in a literal Sense and to believe that that is Flesh which by his sight touch tast and smell he fully and clearly discovers to be Bread all those recited mischiefs are the necessary consequence and there can be no Rule of any certainty in Religion In so much that no Man can be sure that there is a Bible or that any such words as these we treat of are Recorded in it or indeed that any thing else is written in order to his Salvation if he must not trust his Senses being rightly disposed in relation to a proper Object with a fit Medium If you say that this is an improper Object because it is a Substance when Accidents alone do incur the Senses I say that there is no other way to know a Substance but by the Accidents that are proper to it and if it were possible for all the Accidents that are proper to one Subject to inhere another it would be impossible to determine which is which or ever truly to distinguish any one thing from another But it is also evident that a Humane Body is the real thing we here treat of and that this is a proper Object for our Senses appears plainly to us from the practice of our Saviour in that he recurr'd unto them even after his Resurrection and made them the only Judges of his Bodily Substance Behold saies he Luke xxiv 39. my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have So that either this Body of Christ supposed in the Sacrament must be a proper Object for our Senses or it is not that Body of Christ wherewith he arose from the Dead And the Priest must create another Body such as our Saviour never had before he can adapt it to this Doctrin of the Sacrament It is therefore evidently a device of the School-Men to impose upon the Vulgar that they generally discourse thus of the Object of one Science in terms and notions that are peculiar to another and instead of Matter and Form wherein the Essence of a Body doth consist and which do evidently demonstrate that every Humane Body doth consist of Limbs hath Flesh and Bones with that Extent Shape and Dimensions that are proper to it and whereof all Mankind are equally sure and certain All their Disputations are about its Substance and its Accidents which are Metaphysical terms and may agree with a Spirit with whose Nature and Parts the wisest Men are unacquainted And therefore abstracting from the Senses wherein the least intelligent are sufficient Judges they confound our Understanding in such intricacies and quillets that even they themselves cannot explain their meaning And therefore I say that either our Senses must be Judges in this case as well as other Bodies or else that the Body of Christ is not a proper Body as Nestorius heretofore did Heretically assert it or else that God hath appointed here an irresistible deception of all Mankind continually in that which is most evident and sure to be relyed on and how agreeable these are
to the nature of Man or to the justice of God especially if he should punish us for being so deceived I refer to any Man of reason to determine I will not trouble you with the recital of any of those Arguments which demonstrate this Change to be impossible and that the Doctrin doth imply so many contradictions that it is no proper Object for Almighty Power But this I must desire you to observe that if a substantial change were made of the Elements by the words of Consecration then the act of the Apostles was manifestly different from the command of Christ whereon it was founded For nothing can be clearer from the Text than that our Saviour gave the Bread and commanded them to take and eat that is Bread the words of its Consecration being not yet pronounced If then they did eat another substance and not Bread who can truly say that they fulfilled the Commandment of the Lord or Received the Sacrament according to his order § 10. As to the Design in this most Sacred Institution it appears to be the same in relation unto Christians as that of the Passover was unto the Jews That as they did believe in a Messias that was to come and of whom their Sacrifices were but Types and Shadows and so were partakers of the Sacrifice that he was to offer by eating of those Sacrifices that did Typically represent it So we that now believe in a Messias already come should in a parallel manner become Partakers of the same Oblation and by an external act like unto what they did in every Circumstance we should obtain the benefit of that propitiatory Sacrifice and really and truly be made Partakers of it And therefore our Saviour Christ appointed that Bread and Wine should be received by his Disciples in the place and stead of his Body and Blood which were the real Sacrifice that he offered unto God for Man and very improper things to be actually eaten or drank by Christians and therefore he calls the Bread his Body and the Wine his Blood not as being really the things themselves but as Instituted by him to represent them to us So that by a due participation of these Creatures according unto Christ's appointment it is certain that all Christians are partakers of that Sacrifice which he offer'd to God for them and the Bread and Wine being duly Consecrated and Received in the nature of a Sacrament the Body and Blood of Christ is really and truly received by the Faithful in them not that the Elements are changed in themselves or that there is any real alteration of their substance but the act is Spiritual in respect of the Receivers who take them not for Food but as a Mystery in Religion and therefore they do not receive them in their common notion as they are Bread and Wine that is proper Food to nourish or sustain the Body but as they represent the Body and Blood of Christ and are appropriated by Faith to nourish and support the Soul And since then this Sacrament was ordained to become a Sacrifice to Christians as St. Augustinâ— tell us and that those Patriarchs of old who believed in a Messias that was to come were as actual Partakers of that Sacrifice which he hath offered as we can be For they all eat the same spiritual Meat and they all drank the same spiritual Drink 1 Cor. x. 3. Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts iv 12. And yet it was impossible that they should eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood according to the Letter because his Body was not framed yet nor actually born It is therefore rational to conclude that we are still Partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ in the same manner that they were not in a Literal but a Spiritual participation Since the reception of them by Faith only was fully sufficient to the Salvation of the one and therefore is all that is necessary to the Salvation of the other § 11. And this gives us a fair light into the reason or occasion of this Figurative Expression in that the Sacrament of the Eucharist being Instituted by our Saviour in the place of the Jewish Passover which was now to be abolished many of the External Rites were still retained to shew that all those Types are now compleated And therefore as it was usual at the introduction of the Paschal Lamb for the Priest or some other of the Company to tell the People that this is the Lamb that was slain in Egypt when the Lord passed over the houses of our Fathers and slew the Egyptians And again after Supper was ended distributing Bread and Wine to every one in order was wont to tell them This is the Bread of Sorrow which our Fathers eat in Egypt Whereas all Men know that it could not possibly be that very Lamb that was slain nor that very Bread that was eaten in Egypt but another Lamb and other Bread Instituted by God's order in the stead or commemoration of it So our Saviour likewise at the Institution of the Sacrament using the same Phrase upon the like occasion ought to be understood in the same manner of expression And since it was in conformity to their constant way of speaking that when he Instituted Bread and Wine to be Received by Christians in the Commemoration of his own death as that Lamb was of the Passover he said of the Bread This is my Body and of the Wine This is my Blood we are to understand by it no more than if he had told us that they are Elements Sacramentally to be Received in the stead and commemoration of his Body and Blood So that although there is nothing Corporeally upon the Table after the Coâ—â—eâ—ration but the same things that were there before nor eatâ—â— by the Receivers but very Bread with the very same substance that it always had Yet in the notion of a Sacrament and as a Religious Mystery it is not to be received as meer or common Bread by any true or faithful Christian But we verily believe that the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ is actually and truly partaken of in those Elements and as the Church of England Emphatically expresses it The Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and Received by the Faithful in the Lord's-Supper § 12. This you cannot but know to be the Doctrin of the Sacrament as it is received in the Church of England and if you will consult Antiquity you shall find that it hath not only been the general Doctrin of the Universal Church but particularly of the Church of Rome in former Ages For the Antient Fathers generally speak of the Spiritual and Figurative Being of Christ's Body in the Sacrament and do expresly call the same thing at the same time both Bread and the Body of Christ which is impossible to be a truth in the Literal sense and therefore it is necessary to