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
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
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
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