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
rather wonder at their stupidity and fond credulity who can believe any such thing But to get a right strong and well grounded Faith concerning this high mystery what must we do First Reflect we are Christians and as such must necessarily believe very many strange things unless we will renounce Christianity For example we must believe that there are three distinct Persons and every one of these is God and yet there are not three Gods but only one God We must also believe this one God is infinitly merciful and yet he will permit millions of souls to lament and howl amidst scorching Flames for ever though with a word he could ease them of all their pains Moreover we must believe that 1600. years ago one of the three divine Persons was incarnat and became a true mortal man flesh and blood as we are and after 33. years which he lived upon our Earth he was nailed to a Cross Hands and Feet till he died and after three daies came to life again and after 40. days ascended into Heaven where he remains to this day These would seem strange things to believe to one that should never have heard them before and yet stranger to one that from his Childhood should have been taught to laugh at such stories as mere Fables and idle fictions of cheating Priests who knew them well enough to be such but for their own gain and interest seem'd to believe them and with a great deal of Confidence taught them for infallible Truths to the credulous multitude Which being so Reflect 2d y. No Christian must bogle at any thing as to the belief of it merely for the strangeness of it and seeming unlikeliness to his senses or reason But must consider what grounds he has to judge the strange mystery he is required to believe was taught his Fore-fathers by our B. Saviour and his Apostles and if he find he has good grounds for this he must immediately submit his understanding and believe it 3dly Let us reflect upon the state of our own Country as it is at present and as our Annals represent it to have been ever since our first Receiving of the Christian Faith At present we have a considerable number of Families who believe Transubstantiation and have believed it from their Fore-fathers time out of mind and they say ever since the first planting of the Christian Faith amongst us We have also far greater multitudes who do not believe it but yet so as there 's scarce one who is fifty years old whose great Grand-father did not believe it but when his great Grand-father or his great Grand-fathers Ancesters began to believe it we are able to give no acconnt Moreover two hundred years ago in all the several Shires or Provinces of England we all universally Bishops Priests and People Rich and Poor Learned and Unlearned believed it And this not as a new Doctrin found out by themselves by reading the holy Scriptures No. They were Enemies to all Novelties and professed they must hold fast what had been taught by their Fore-elders and interpret Scripture in the sense their Fore-elders had done Now how is it possible they should come to believe such a strange Doctrin unless it had been taught them from their Fore-fathers and the first Preachers of Christianity in our Nation Especially they not reading the holy Scriptures as we do now nor having such store of Bibles that they might perhaps by their private reading have come to believe this hard and high mystery contrary to what had been taught them by their Fore-elders How came they to learn it then Did they some strange morning or other all awake of a different belief from what they had been of the Evening before Or did it come into some Schollars head by studying the holy Scriptures reading for example those words This is my body so often repeated in the Evangelists S. Paul and he hereupon was convinced they had all been in an Error for so many years and by Preaching and Disputing perswaded others But how comes it to pass then we having had Historians that have mentioned far less Matters yet say not a word of any such thing Or did the Britons before S. Austin the Monk believe no such thing How came they then not to clash about it or if they did how comes it to pass other differences are recorded and this is omitted Besides if S. Austin taught it our Ancesters he confirm'd the Religion he taught by miracles as all our Stories testifie And also he lived within the first 600 years to which Dr. N. N. in one of his Sermons appeals Nor did that blessed man pretend to teach us a new Religion neither newly found out at Rome but what was alwaies believed ever since S. Peter 4. Let us consider why we are Christians and we shall find if we be so rationally and groundedly and not merely because we were so brought up from our Childhood I say we shall find our Faith to be grounded upon such principles as if we be true to them they will force us as strongly to believe Transubstantiation as the Incarnation the Real presence as the Deity of our Saviour For example I believe the man Jesus Christ who lived 1600. years ago was also God And why Because he said he was so and proved by evident miracles that he was sent to teach the World Truth and nothing but Truth And why all this Because it could not stand with the providence of God to suffer a Deceiver to work such miracles as he wrought teaching withal and practising such sanctity as he did For then the most sincere desirers to know the Truth would be most subject to miss of it But how do I know Jesus Christ wrought such miracles Because I find them Recorded in certain Books which several Nations all over the World have immemorially looked upon as faithful true stories ever since the time the miracles are said to have been wrought Now 't is not possible but the men then alive must needs certainly know whether he did work such strange miracles or no. And if they had known no such thing was wrought by him but that these things were at first feigned by some of his Friends and afterwards committed to writing by them they could never contrary to the evidence of their own knovvledge have told unanimously such notorious Lyes to their Posterity and have made them believe them as they did Nor could have recommended the Books vvherein they vvere Recorded to their Children and have made them reverence them as unquestionable and infallibly certain Histories as they did But hovv do I knovv that Jesus Christ taught that he vvas God vvhy certainly the Apostles understood him vvhat he said concerning himself vvhether he vvere only a holy man like to their great Moyses or else vvere true and substantially God and consequently to be Worshipped by them as such And no doubt but they taught their first Converts vvhat they had learnt
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
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
of his Reasons and Arguments and relinquished their former antient Faith Which notwithstanding certainly must have happen'd not only in one but in all Christian Countries were the doctrin of the Real presence a new invention and the denial of it the antient Christian Faith Else how came all Christendom according to the confession of our Adversaries for many Ages universally to believe it Now can any one imagin that the belief of so strange a mystery and which in practice makes all the Believers of it Idolaters unless it be true could be introduced both into the Greek and Latin Church without any opposition or if it were opposed that no one Writer in any one Country should make mention who they were that opposed it and how they lost their cause And this though there have not wanted Writers of what has happen'd in the Christian Church who have made mention of far lesser accidents in any Age wherein this belief can be pretended to have been brought in nay which have taken notice in several Ages and Countries how certain deniers of this mystery have attempted the bringing in of their new doctrin by whom they were opposed and how they were silenced Read our own Chronicles about the year 1370. concerning John Wiclef and see whether he was not opposed by all the Bishops and Priests of our English Church as a teacher of a doctrin contrary to what they had been taught by their Ancestors when he began to teach our Lord's body was not in the Eucharist And then reflect with your self if the doctrin of the Real presence was not taught our Nation when we were first converted to Christianity how comes it to pass that all our Chronicles should be silent when or by whom we were taught this mysterious doctrin and what assistance they had from the civil power so unversally to impose upon our Country such a strange belief which in all reason require a far greater power to make it prevail then the contrary doctrin And yet you see where the contrary doctrin is believed it cost no small pains and force and time to introduce it nor has all this neither been able to make it Universal in so much as in one Christian Province Make the like Reflexion upon the City of Rome and consider that in the Apostles daies they believed aright concerning this great mystery and for some hundreds of years according to the concession of our Adversaries Now this great and Cultivated City has memorials of what has past in it as we have of what has past in London and yet they make no mention of any one that ever began since their first Conversion to Christianity to teach this strange doctrin and worship of the holy Eucharist but that they have immemorially from S. Peter believed and adored it as the body of their Saviour and God Nor indeed can it be imagin'd how they could ever possibly change their first Faith having ever opposed all Teachers of Novelties with that Answer of S. Stephen Pope to the Clergy of Africa concerning Rebaptization never heeding all their seeming Reasons or Texts of Scripture understood after a new manner as S. Vincent Lirinensis observes Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est We must Innovate nothing but stick to the doctrin delivered to us by out Ancestors When think you should we in London be brought universally to believe the Real presence if we were resolved for ever tenaciously to adhere to the doctrin taught us by our immediat Predecessors notwithstanding whatsoever Argument should be brought against us from Reason or Scripture 2. Consider how our Adversaries would triumph over us could they find but one City in the whole world which should prosess to have believed immemorially since their first Reception of the Christian Faith as they do concerning the Holy Eucharist and all their Cronicles were either silent or positively testified as much and we were not able positively to shew when they began their Faith but should Answer their Chronicles were corrupted or antient Records lost or by little and little they left off imperceptibly believing as they were first taught But if to all this they could produce in several Ages how such a Doctor upon pretence of cleer Scripture endeavor'd to make them leave their antient Faith but they still retained it opposing to all his seeming strong Arguments that thus they had been taught time out of mind by their Ancestors from their first Conversion to Christian Religion and to understand those Scriptures otherwise But if to all this they could produce in several Ages Recorded miracles in confirmation of their Faith and we should have nothing to reply but that these miracles were feigned Think if they would not return upon us that such wild Answers open'd a way to Atheists to deny all the miracles of Moyses and our B. Saviour And then consider impartially whether this be not our Case 3. Consider though our Adversaries but very irrationally deny any miracles to have been wrought in our Church yet they cannot deny but we have Records without number of notorious and most evident miracles and such Records as in civil matters no body questions Men for example of good judgment and honest repute attesting upon their Oaths that upon such a day such and such miraculous events happen'd they were eye-witnesses of them c. And then reflect how it can stand with the providence of God and his desire of mankinds worshipping him according to his will to permit even such Records of miracles in a false Church For certainly a sincere desirer to find out the Truth must needs be strangely enclin'd to give credit to such Records and which moreover he should find to be credited by persons of as good judgment and integrity as himself in all Christian Provinces in Communion with the See of Rome And indeed such Records of false miracles would be as apt to deceive impartial judicious Enquirers as even the sight of false miracles themselves For why are we so assured our senses cannot deceive us Is it not because we never experienced them to fail us in due circumstances and also because if we should be necessitated by them to judge of things otherwise than they are God Almighty who has so made our senses would be the cause of our mistake which were to tell a real lye And did Tradition duely circumstantiated ever yet fail And would not God Almighties providence in the government of man-kind be deficient it being necessary for us to know certainly not only things that are present to us which we do by our senses but also things that are distant from us both in place and time which we can only know by the report of others if no assured certain credit could be given to the restimony of men though never so many in number and of never so good repute Especially when he obliges us to be of a Religion which was taught our Ancestors 1600. years before we were Born
up our shops on the Anniversary of the death of our gracious Soverain Charles the First unless we had been commanded so to do by some Universal Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil Take notice by this Argument is also proved all other points of Catholick practice or Faith as Purgatory prayer for the Dead c. but especially such as nature has a difficulty to believe or do That one man should kill himself is no wonder but that all the Inhabitants of a populous City should kill themselves would be such a wonder as never yet happen'd in Nature Against all that has been said I doubt not but you will be apt to reply We acknowledge for divers Ages our own and other Christian Countrys believed the holy Eucharist to be really and substantially our B. Saviours true body blood adored it as such but yet we cannot believe that either S. Peter and Paul at Rome or S. Joseph of Arimathia in our own Country taught any such doctrin but that imperceptibly by little and little the whole Christian world changed the Faith that was first planted by the Apostles as particular men grow gray and whole Countries change their Languages imperceptibly For Answer to this Reply let us not discourse in generals but consider and devise with our selves how possibly such a thing might practically happen For example let us take the City of Rome into our consideration It s confessed by all that the Inhabitants of that Cultivated City Priests and People universally do believe and have for many generations believed a Consecrated Wafer to be Jesus Christ God and Man veiled with the outward appearance or species of common Bread Now we are to enquire how they came to this strange Faith Say then Rome by little and little began to believe this mystery first one and then another till at length the whole City was of that belief But how without a Teacher and all in the same year or in what length of time That one man or some few in a populous City should of themselves fall to the belief of such a strange mystery contrary to what has been believed by their Ancestors might be granted but that the whole City Learned and Unlearned Priest and People should so change their Faith and that for such a strange one too without a Master or a Teacher that 's wholly incredible Or if some Bishop or Priest of Rome since the Apostles had perswaded the people to believe the strange doctrin of Transubstantiation how comes it to pass seeing the belief of the doctrin is still retained that the Authors name is not retained with singular honor and reverence by the believers of it as the names of Calvin and Luther are by Calvinists and Lutherans and the names of the first Preachers of Christianity by the several Christian Countrys they converted Besides whosoever Priest or Layman should have begun to preach such a strange and incredible doctrin to nature must needs have met with great opposition from all sorts of persons from good men because his doctrin tended to make them all gross Idolaters and Worshippers of a piece of Bread as God from bad men because his doctrin strangely shocked their sense and reason which nature and vitious followers of nature would by no means endure Now if opposition were made at the first introducing of this new Faith how comes it to pass all both Roman and other Histories are silent as to any such thing Should I by way of Prophesie tell you that the great City of London within these 300. years shall as universally as does now the City of Rome believe and adore the Holy Eucharist as Jesus Christ himself and this so imperceptibly that neither they nor neighbouring Citys or Countrys shall perceive it till the whole City be quite changed Nay 300. years hence when they shall be charged with Idolatry and Innovation for such their belief and practice they shall profess that they have always so believed and practised ever since they were Christians And all this though they shall for these 300. years have Priests and Bishops whose Office it shall be to teach the quite contrary doctrin and these Priests shall be such Zealous retainers of the doctrin they now believe that when in the compass of this 300. years to come there shall rise up Teachers of new Doctrins deniers of the Divinity of our Saviour and the eternity of the torments of impenitent Sinners c. and shall alledge strong human Reasons and seeming Scriptures for themselves these Priests shall oppose we must innovate nothing we must stick to the belief our Ancestors were of in the year 1675. Then God Almighty testified from Heaven by evident Miracles the Truth of our Fore-elders Faith and then we had charge not to change our Faith though on Angel from Heaven should accuse us of mistake and therefore you must pardon us if we adhere to this Faith Add. There shall not want frequent Assemblies of the wisest and best Learned in the City and they shall meet on purpose to enquire whether the faith and practice of the year 1675. be kept and yet they shall never take notice of so gross and notorious a change as the believing and adoring a piece of bread as God till the whole City be in such a belief and practice but other mistakes that some particular men were bringing in they shall observe and correct Nay 300. years hence there shall rise up a certain Priest who shall accuse all the Priests and people of the City for believing otherwise thâ—n their Ancestors did in 1675 but yet shall not be able by vertue of any History or Oral Tradition to shew how or by whom they were perswaded to that strange Faith they shall then be of and yet there shall not want Historiographers neither who shall take notice of other notorious changes that shall happen both in Church and State in those 300. years Think now seriously with your selves how impossible it is for any such thing to happen in nature and examin impartially whether the deniers of Transubstantiation be not forced to affirm the like incredible wonder to have happen'd not in one City alone but in many Cities and whole Countrys But the wonder would be yet greater if there were not one Believer of Transubstantiation in the year 1675. in the City of London nor never had been one since the first planting of Christianity neither there nor in any other neighbouring City or Country and yet all this must be solved by deniers of Transubstantiation to be Apostolical doctrin For place your self in what Age of Christianity you please and suppose the known Cities and Countries of Christendom to believe universally concerning the holy Eucharist as the Citizens of London generally do now Take for example the year 500. after our B. Lord though our Adversaries pretend to be willing to be judged by the Doctors of the first 600. Add to 500. a decursion of 300. or 500. years and then see what Faith the Christian world is of and you 'l find they universally believe and adore the Holy Eucharist as Rome does at this present Joyn now your selves with Berengarius in the year one thousand and fifty or thereabouts and see what account you can give how all your fellow Clergy and Laity came so to have changed and 〈…〉 from what it was in the fifth Century For you â—â—â—ll not think the several Councils gathered against that denier of the Real presence the Bishops in them then first began to believe the Real presence and that when they returned to their several Diocesses they taught them a strange new doctrin which they by inspiration had newly learnt when they were Assembled together but they only gave in their Verdicts what immemorially had been believed in their several Countrys they came from as to that mystery As if for example a Synod of all the Bishops in England should meet in the year 1675. to examin concerning the Quakers whether they Preached false and Antichristian doctrin or no in denying Baptism and all other Sacraments and they should conclude against those Innovators would you infer thence the Church of England only in the year 1675. and never before reverenced Baptism or any other Sacrament of Christ And yet this is just our case when our Adversaries will have the belief and adoration of the B. Sacrament to have not been heard of before the Councils that condemned Berengarius As to your instances of a man growing gray and whole Countrys imperceptibly changing their language is it possible think you for any mans whole head by little and little to grow gray and neither he nor any other should take notice of it till he were as white as Snow and this though he and others were charged to take notice of every hair that should grow gray and to pluck it out immediatly and he and others should frequently consult whether any such change were made in his head or no Say the same concerning a whole Countrys changing their Language by little and little Impose a severe penalty against any one that in writing or speech should introduce a new word and appoint Officers to take notice of all such new coyned words and let these Officers have frequent consults to this purpose Add a menace of death both to Overseers and people if any such alteration through their neglect of their duty should happen And then think how it could be possible for a whole Country by little and little imperceptibly to change its Language The like change and menace gave Jesus Christ to the Pastors of his Church not to change their Faith And yet after all this can not one Country but the whole Christian world have so changed their Faith as they became imperceptibly most stupid Idolaters To conclude if you examin the matter well you will find you must either resolve to believe the strange doctrin of Transubstantiation or else something far more incredible Soli Christo Gloria