but moreover they deliver to others what they have polluted Makers of Idols are admitted into the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy O Impiety Once the Jews laid profane hands on Christ these daily violate his body O hands deserving to be cut off But shall we desire a Greek Father or two to give us their sense concerning our present Controversie S. Crysost ho. 60. ad pop Antioch Because the Word saies This is my Body let us assent and believe And a little after How many are there now adaies that say O that I could see his Figure his Garments his Shooes Lo thou seest himself thou touchest him thou eatest him Thou desirest to see his Garments but he give thee not only to see but also to eat and touch and take himself into thee And a little after Consider what an indignation thou hast against the Traytor Judas and against those that Crucified him Therefore consider lest thou also beest not guilty of the body and blood of Christ. They killed his most holy body and thou receivest it with a polluted soul after so many benefits For he was not satisfied to be made man to be Buffetted and Crucified but moreover he does mix himself with us and makes us his body not only by Faith but in very deed And ho. 24. in Ep. 1. ad Corin. Christ has given us his body both that we might have it and might eat it which is the greatest sign of love Wherefore Job chap. 31. that he might show the love of his Servants to him said they oftentimes of their execeeding great love to him would say concerning him Who will give us of his Flesh that we might be filled with it Even so Christ has given us his Flesh that we might feed upon it thereby to allure us to love him very much This body the Sages adored in the Manger Thou seest it not in the Manger but npon the Altar not a Woman holding it in her arms but a Priest present Nor do I show thee Angels nor Arch-angels nor Heaven nor the Heaven of Heavens but the very Lord of all these things Nor doest thou only see him but touch him not only touch him but eat him and having received him returns to thy home And Hom. 60 ad pop Antioch and 83. in Math. Let us every where believe God and not oppose him although that which he saies seem absurd to our sense and thoughts let his speech overcome both our sense and our reason which let us do in all things and especially in the Mysteries not only regarding those things which lie before us but also holding fast to his words For we cannot be deceived by his words but our sense is most easily deceived those cannot be false this is deceived very often Because therefore he has said this is my body let us make no doubt but believe and see it with the yes of our understanding And in his 3. ho. in Ep. ad Ephes Let us think that him that sits above who is adored by the Angels 't is him that we tast that we feed upon And ho. 2. ad pop Antioc Elias left his Disciple his Mantle but the Son of God ascending left us his Flesh. But Elias indeed put off his Mantle but Christ both left us his Flesh and retaining it ascended with it Let us not therefore be dishartened nor lament nor fear the difficulty of the times For he that has not refused to shed his blood for us and has communicated to us both his flesh and blood will not refuse to do any thing for our Salvation Hear another Greek Doctor S. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechistical discourses which are the plainest declarations of the mysteries of our holy Faith Catech. 4. Mys. Seeing then Christ himself so affirms and says concerning the bread This is my body who after this can dare to doubt of it and the same also affirming and saying This is my blood who I say can doubt of it and say it is not his blood He changed water into wine in Cana of Galilee by his sole Will and shall he not be worthy whom we may believe that he changed wine into his blood For if being invited to a corporeal Wedding he wrought a stupendious miracle shall we not confess him much rather to have given his body and blood to the Children of the Bridegroom Wherefore with all assurance let us take the body and blood of Christ for under the appearance of bread is given to thee his body and under the appearance of wine is given his blood that having received the body and blood of Christ thou maiest be made partaker together with him of his body and Blood So shall we be Christophers such as carry Christ in them when we shall have received his body and blood into our Members and so as S. Peter saies shall be made partakers of the divine Nature Do not therefore look upon it as bare bread and bare wine for it is the body and blood of Christ according to the words of our Lord himself For although thy sense suggest this to thee yet let Faith confirm thee do not judge of the thing by thy tast but rather from Faith hold for certain so that thou hast no doubt that the body and blood are given to thee Knowing and accounting for most certain that this bread which is seen by us is not bread although our tast judge it to be bread but that it is the body of Christ. And the wine which is seen by us although it may seem wine to our sense of tasting that yet it is not wine but the blood of Christ. Can the holy Council of Trent have plainer words than these or fuller to our present purpose Add the testimony of S. Justin Martyr who lived yet nearer the Age of the Apostles in his Apology for the Christians to Antoninus the Emperor in which he gives him an account of the Christian Faith and where certainly he would not make it more mysterious than it was nor more hard to be believed according to any part of it then the truth and common belief of Christians forced him but rather would moderate the mysteriousness of it than encrease it Hear him then giving an account of the Holy Eucharist This meat is called by us the Eucharist because no body may partake of it but he who believes those things to be true which we say and lives so as Christ has taught us For we do not take these things as common and ordinary bread but as by the word of God our Saviour Jesus Christ was made man and had flesh and blood for our Salvation so we have been taught that this meat which is Consecrated by the Prayers of that speech we received from him is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ who was made man For the Apostles in their Commentaries which are called Gospels have delivered that Christ so commanded and that having taken bread when he had given thanks he said Do this
perswade Unbelievers to acknowledge the true Faith but only professes that by these her members are sanctified For example we say by Baptism as an outward and visible sign is wrought an invisible grace in the soul of the person Baptized Though view the Child as much as you please you can by none of your senses perceive any mutation to be wrought In like manner the Church professes to believe the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God that our Lord Jesus though to outward appearance a mere man was also true God and yet by no sense was the Hypostatical Union of his soul and body to the Second person of the blessed Trinity discernable This was no doubt a great Miracle yea the miracle of miracles wrought amongst us but the end of its working being not by it as a motive to draw the world to Christianity but to constitute a fit person for the working of the salvation of the world it was not necessary it should be the object of our senses The same Lord and Saviour telling us that he was God though we could discern no Characters of Divinity in him by any of our senses he saying that he was God proving by other Miracles to our senses that he was sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth this was sufficient to secure our belief of his Deity In like manner in the mystery of the holy Eucharist this miraculous change being not wrought to allure Strangers to the Christian Faith but to sanctifie Believers and to work all those spiritual effects in them above-mentioned by being received by them and offered up in their presence for them c. it was not requisite this change should be the object of our senses Nay it was necessary it should not be the object of our senses For it being wrought to the intent we should eat and drink our dear Lord his body and blood it was necessary only the substance of bread and wine should be turned into the substance of our Lords flesh and blood the accidents of bread and wine remaining for that otherwise we should have a horror to eat raw flesh and drink true appearing blood As to the confirmation of the Argument that hence it would follow we cannot trust our senses and consequently not be certain of any miracle wrought by our Saviour To this I Answer We may alwaies trust our senses about their own objects and in due circumstances and when we have not positive grounds to think either God Almighty by himself or by an Angel or permissively by a Devil represents things otherwise then they are The three Children in the fiery Furnace might really think themselves in the midst of scorching Flames though they felt them not because they had reason to surmise God Almighty wrought a miracle out of those circumstances they had no reason to believe any thing to be ordinary fire which should not burn as fire Nor must they for this for ever after be in doubt whether they were not environed with Flames of fire or no. Nor must Abram because once in a particular circumstance he mistook three Angels for three men therefore never after believe his eyes whether he saw a man or no unless he first pinched him by the arm and felt that he had flesh and blood as himself Nor must one who in the presence of a Conjurer had taken pibble stones for grapes for ever after be doubtful whether he saw grapes or no till he tasted them Nor does it follow S. Mary Magdalen could not be certain she ever saw our B. Saviour because once her senses were mistaken concerning him taking him for the Gardener And in our present case our B. Saviour telling us that the Holy Eucharist is his body we have all reason to think that by miracle he makes it to be so whatsoever it seems to our senses Nor do Catholicks therefore out of such a circumstance doubt of all the bread they see whether it be not their Lords body or no Though I must tell you even here your senses are not mistaken for they do perceive what they seem to perceive that is the Accidents of bread and wine which remain and affect them in the same manner as when the substance under them was the substance of bread and wine but now is the substance of our Lords body and blood Substances are not discernable by any sense only we conclude by a Physical certitude such a substance is under such a complex of Accidents when we have nor positive grounds that God Almighty works a miracle as here we have he saying expresly of this object before us 'T is his body and 't is his blood But if there be so much to be said for this great mystery how comes it to pass so many have so great difficulty to believe it It is not because the mystery is not highly credible but it is partly from Nature and partly from Education and partly from want of a serious and frequent consideration of those Arguments which strongly evince the credibility of it and partly for want of strange desires of the happiness of the other life and of a heart void of inordinate affections to the things of this life Pleasures Riches and Honors 'T is partly from Nature I say For 't is not more difficult to our senses to practice Sobriety Temperance Chastity and Fasting then it is to our understanding to assent to Truths which seem to shock our reason and senses though proposed by never so great Authority Should you have seen our B. Saviour sucking his Mothers Breast in the Stable of Bethlehem whosoever should have told you the little Infant there was God Almighty the maker of Heaven and Earth Nature would have found a great difficulty to believe so strange an assertion and no less then it does now to believe that a little Wafer in the hands of a Priest is the same Christ both God and man veiled under the appearance of the common accidents of bread But had it been moreover from your infancy continually noysed in your ears by such as you reverenced for their learning and skill in divine matters that it was impossible for God to become man this would strangely have encreased your difficulty to believe a little Infant in nothing different as to outward appearance from other Children should be God But if to all this you should add never or very seldom and slightly to consider the positive Arguments for the belief of that mystery of the Incarnation but were ever still poring upon the difficulty and unlikeliness and seeming impossibility of any such thing 't is not possible you should ever come to the belief of it though the mystery be never so true in it self nor the Arguments to prove it never so evident and cogent But this is the case of us generally in England as to the mystery of the B. Sacrament and therefore no vvonder if generally it be not believed by us but we
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
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
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
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