they say were then used what do they signifie but the same sense which we who are and must be their Adversaries in this and many other Points of our Christian Profession do and always have acknowledged viz. That there is a change in these outward Elements being turned from a common to a sacred Use after they are Consecrated and set apart according to the first Institution Which certainly was the meaning of the Antients in this Case and no otherwise as shall appear hereafter from very good Authority though 't is true their Zeal did oftimes lead them to many strains of Rhetorick in a just magnifying this great and holy Mystery But will any man that is wise conclude thereupon that to be their Judgment which is now and hath been since their times vainly precended and thrust upon them by the Church of Rome meerly upon the account of their florid Elocutions Hyper bolies and high Expressions used by them to quicken Communicants to their Duty when they come to the Lords Table For our parts we cannot so conclude for then we should condemn our selves who often do the same thing to the same good end and purpose as they did yet abhor this unscriptural Doctrine of Transubstantiation A Doctrine it is that overthroweth the very nature of the Sacrament For unless there be an outward sign really continued in it such as Christ instituted to Represent and assure the Grace he principally intended to the Faith of those that come worthily unto it it is and must be utterly annihilated Neither can it be said that the Accidents of Bread and Wine do remain as a Sign when the Substance is vanished For there can be no Resemblance nor Analogy between those Accidents which have nothing in them of Nourishment and the Body and Blood of Christ whereby the Souls of True Believers are in and by that Sacrament really nourished and strengthned Nor can it be denied that in every Sacrament it is meet and requisite that there be an Analogy or convenient Agreement between the outward Sign and that spiritual good thing which is signified by it This being so may it not be proved to the Teeth of our Adversaries that they are in an Error in this Point and that they vainly pretend to make that to be an Article of Faith which a ma◠may Consute by his fingers ends A Doctrine which like the Eutichian Heresie of old disanuls the Verity of Christs Human Nature For it hath fancied such a Body unto Christ which in one and the same moment of time may be in many thousands of places viz. wherefoever the Massing-Priests shall please to Consecrate their Host which clearly contradicts not only Nature and Reason but the plain word of-Scripture which saith Heb. 4.15 Christ was in all Points temp'red like as we are yet without sin neither will it help them to say as they do weakly enough Christ's Body is now Glorisied For first Christ spake this word This is my Body at his last Supper when he was here upon Earth 2. It is the Crucified Body of Christ which is Represented in the Sacrament not the Glorified 3. Christ's Body is not by being Glorified so devested of its natural Properties as to cease from being a Body and if by being in Glory it be made ubiquitary a Property only belonging to the Divine Nature then shall our Bodies be so too in Heaven which I think no man will say For these Vile Bodies shall be made like unto Christ's Glorious Body Phil. 3.21 It would be too great weariness to my Reader if I should lead him into a consideration of the many gross Absurdities which arise from this upstart Doctrine that which hath been here in short alledged against it is enough to shew the Vanity of it And so long as the Abettors thoroof continue in it all who will be faithful to the Gospel of Christ and his Church must protest against them But we have say they the word of Christ himself for our Warrant for hath not he said This is my Body and may not we without offence say as he hath said viz That it is his Body Yea and one of them none of the meanest as I find it reported of him by a late Writer thus vannteth out his Considence that if God should ask him at the Day of Judgment why he held so he will boldly say Tu docuisti thou hast taught me But is it true that the Spirit of God hath taught him to say so and will he like a dull Schollar 〈◊〉 poring still upon the Letter of his Lesson never labouring to understand the right sense and meaning of it of which gross neglect what account he and his Fellow-Ignaro'es can be ablo to make at the time of publick Examination would be considered by them And is it not say they again possible with God to make good his own word by changing the Substance of the Bread into the Substance of Christs Body though we see it not Wherein they seem to be like the Stoick Philosophers that were of old who proposing things strange and uncouth in foretelling future Events pleaded for themselves saying nihil est quod Deus essicere non possit there is nothing which God cannot bring to pass But as Cicero answered them well in his second Book de divinatione Vtinam Sapientes Stoicos effecisset I wish he had made the Stoicks wise Men So may we wish that these of the Roman Church had more Wisdom in their knowledge of God and his Word than it appears yet they have For us we will not we dare not and God forbid we ever should deny this Attribute of Omnipotency to the great God Creator of Heaven and Earth he hath himself spoken it not once but twice i. e. not once but many times once in the Law and a second time in the Gospel without Retractation That Power belongeth unto him But to argue a posse ad esse will be acknowledged by all to be very Illogical and in this case it is inconsistent with found Divinity For we are taught by the Holy Scripture that Gods Will and Power are ever joyned together only his will makes way for the exerting his Power his actual Power I say which is of the same Latitude and Extent with his Will Our God is in Heaven saith the Psalmist P. 115.3 and doth whatsoever he will not whatsoever he can do So Job What his Soul desireth even that he doth Job 23.13 He can at an Instant overturn the whole course of Nature and Reduce all things to a Chaos by his absolute power or annihilate them but he doth not because he will not There is no doubt but what Christ said is true and what he said he is able to bring to pass for being God equal with the Father we confess with Holy Job he can do all things But the Question is not of the truth of these words nor of his Power in fulfilling them but of the Sense viz.
This appears to me pardon my Confidence an unquestionable rendring of the sense of these words and a manifest clearing of all Difficulties yea and of all Differences too which have been raised about them if men would but follow the conduct of Truth and Reason For let it be considered though we find a distinction of Gods Covenants with Mankind viz. the old and the new yet I ask Is not the Covenant of Grace the same now for Substance which it was from the beginning Was not the same Spirit of Christ in his Ordinances given unto the Fathers under the Law which is now given to the faithful under the Gospel excepting only in the Accidents and Circumstances of Effusion and Manifestation How else can Christ be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same yesterday and to day as it is said he is Heb. 13.8 and will be so for ever Had the Fathers a Saviour and Deliverer exhibited unto them in the Paschal Lamb otherwise more than symbolically than we have in the Lords Supper Did they not all eat the same spiritual Meat and did they not all drink the same spiritual Drink the same not only with and among themselves as Popish Writers would have it but the same with us Christians also For the Apostle addeth they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 Can any truth revealed in Scripture be more plain than this viz. that Christ was their Expectation their Comfort their Refuge their Rock in all their Troubles the Food and Sustenance of their Souls the Object of their Faith even as he is now in this time of the Gospel to all true Believers And consequently that this Sense which is here rendred of our Lords words is most true Well may it therefore be an Amazement unto all men as it is God knoweth unto me that such a pudder hath been made in the World about these words of our Saviour which do and can signifie no more in this case unto us than the Sacramental Form of Instituting a new Sacrament did necessarily require in Rome of the old Let therefore the vain words of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation and the Questions de modo sine modo as they have been well called of Christs Presence in his Sacrament about which this giddy Generation hath been quarrelling so long be for ever abandoned by us and let us for shame content our selves as becometh us and as the Fathers of old under the Law did with the Overtures of God's love in the Arbitrary Dispensations of his Grace for we never hear of such Annimosities and uncharitable Differences among them about this matter as have been among us and whatsoever is in it which for the present surpasseth our Understanding when we come to see God as he is we shall undoubtedly see more clearly the secret of his Covenant and have a more perfect knowledge of this Mystery than we can now be able to attain unto or than indeed is fit for us while we are cloathed with Mortality to reach at much less throughly to understand In fine the Judgment of Venerable Mr. Hooker concerning this point way well be accounted a ne plus ultra to all sober men His words are these The real Presence of Christs most Blessed Body and Blood is not to be sought for in the Sacrament but in the worthy Receiver of the Sacrament And with this the very order of our Saviour's words agreeth first take and Eat then This is my Body which was broken for you first drink ye all of this then followeth This is my Blood which was shed for you I see not which way it should be gathered by the words of Christ when and where the Bread is his Body or the Cup his Blood but only in the very Heart and Soul of him that receiveth them As for the Sacraments they really exhibit but for ought we can gather out of that which is written of them they are not really nor do really contain in themselves that Grace which with them or by them it pleaseth God to be stow If on all sides it be confest that the Grace of Baptisin is poured into the Soul of man that by Water we Receive it although it be neither seated in the Water nor the Water changed into it what should induce men to think that the Grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before it can be in us that Receive it Now the Reason hereof is in my Judgment beyond all exception For as in the Sacrament of Baptism all that the Minister doth or can do is to Baptise with water after he hath with solemn Prayer and Supplication set it apart from other water it is Christ himself that Baptiseth us with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Our Ministery is but very Wash in comparison of that which Christ doth unto us when we are Baptised So in that other Sacrament of the New Testament the Priest can do nothing but give the outward Elements after he hath by Prayer and reciting the words of Christ put a distinction between them and other ordinary Bread and Wine it is Christ only who by that means feedeth the Soul of a worthy Communicant with his broken Body and his Blood poured out for the sin of the World only as unless we be Baptised with Water we cannot ordinarily expect to be Baptised with the Holy Ghost so unless when we are invited unto the Lords Table we come worthily unto it and there Take and Receive the Consecrated Elements at the Hands of the Minister our Souls must want that spiritual nourishment from and by Christ which otherwise they might be sed with and made strong in the Grace of God Which being so as it is a truth not to be denied what need all those bitter Conflicts that have been and are about this matter We should rather say as that worthy Author had written a little before in the same Paragraph Shall I wish saith he that men would give themselves more to meditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament and less to dispute of the manner how If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness let us see whether the Apostles of the Lord themselves have not done the like It appeareth by many Examples that they of their own Disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive yea in other cases of less Importance and less Difficulty always apt to move Questions How cometh it to pass that so few words of so high a Mystery being uttered they receive with gladness the gift of Christ and make no shew of doubt or scruple The Reason hereof is not dark to them who have any thing at all observed how the Powers of the Mind are wont to stir when that alone which we infinitely long for presenteth it self above and besides Expectation Curious and intricate Speculations do hinder they abate they quench such inflamed Motions of Delight and Joy as divine Graces use
taste of them for that would be nauseous but to save my self the labour and to ease him of his trouble in tumbling over your stuff which you have heaped together I shall in that manner as aforesaid make my Addresses unto you V. G. Reflector Adam and Eve's Salvation is much what the same with that of Solomons and both equally probable though they are not certainly known and revealed Answer Not certainly known and revealed no more is the Salvation of Seth Enos Cainan c. nor many of those that follow who are upon Record for holy Persons though their Obedience to Gods Law was not so exact as the Law did require But seeing the Salvation of our first Parents is here brought into Question by you I shall shew you somewhat concerning them which it seems you know not To say nothing of what is written of Adam Luke 3.38 where he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God for as Cain is said to be 1 Joh. 3.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the wicked one the Devil as belonging to him so is Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God as belonging not only to his Creation for so do all Creatures even the Devils but to his Election of Grace It is written of Adam Gen. 3.20 that after his Fall and Gods Displeasure made known unto him for it immediately Adam called his Wives name Eve Because she was to be the Mother of all living The sense whereof I take to be this with submission to better Judgments Adam by Faith here layeth hold upon the Promise of Gods Grace And he doth it in the only way and manner that he could have at that time to give an Evidence of his Faith that is in calling his Wife by a new name a name which he had not before given her when the Lord God brought her first unto him For he now when the Sentence of Death was past upon him calleth her name Eve which signifieth Life whereas before he had only called her Woman as being one whom he was to own above all other Creatures for the lovely and beloved Consort of his Life implying doubtless that though he had been in danger through his sin to die in the loss of Gods Favour for ever yet was he now fully perswaded by the gracious Indulgence of God unto him in the Seed of the Woman that not he himself alone and his Wife should live but his Posterity also should be a living Posterity and that his Wife should be Mother of him among them by whom the Sentence of Death was to be Reversed and Life and Immortality to be again brought to light for saith Moses She was to be the Mother of all living That this sense may be received let it be considered if this were not the Intent of Moses in this place viz. to give notice hereby of Adams Restipulation to the new Covenant here would be a strange Incongruity between these words and those immediately before There had God severely threatned to punish Adam all the days of his life with sorrow upon sorrow for his Disobedience and that he should in the end be reduced to his Dust from whence he was taken Now surely to a man that was exalted to so great an Honour as Adam was in his Creation the sound of these words must needs be very terrible and it might well be expected that at the first hearing them somewhat should have appeared of Adams Astonishment and bewailing his Misery but we find no such matter here at all to be mentioned What then Is all this Thunder and Lightning from Heaven upon him sleighted and made of no Account So it should seem if these words of Adam concerning his Wife have no coherence with the former but do only shew a kind of Uxoriousness in him towards his Wife But away with such vain conceits there is certainly that here added which may well be construed as a due Sequel of the former proceedings of God with Adam For when God had done pronouncing his righteous Judgment what should this poor Malefactor do Not certainly as Cain after him did cry out desperately my Punishment is greater than I can bear but without delay close in with God's Mercy in the promised Seed Here therefore in order thereto is a Description of his Considence in Gods goodness purposely so interserted by Moses to shew as hath been said the lively Faith of Adam in laying hold upon Gods preceding Promise For though it is to be presumed he did humble himself greatly before God for his sin yet is not that so much regarded by the Spirit of God as this his confident cleaving to the Covenant of Gods grace that so the Church may take notice hereby that this Covenant was at first mutually agreed upon between God and Adam and consequently that all Mankind to the end of the World who are interessed in it must be obliged to the conditions of it For the Act and Deed of the first Covenanter who was the representative General of all that came after him in this Case as well as in the other of the former Covenant was ipso facto obligatory in their several Generations according to the form and Manner Force and Virtue of all other Covenants that are usual now adays in the World of the like sort and nature If this then be the true sense of this Scripture as I believe it is and will be so accounted by the Church of God throughtout the World viz. that our first Parents did in this manner mutually consent with God in the Covenant of grace what an uncharitable man are you to doubt of their Salvation especially when as it appeareth in the verse following upon their submission and consenting to this new Covenant God doth immediately also take care of these his new Covenant Servants that they may be clothed as 't were with his Livery that their Bodies may be preserved from Shame and Violence and that they might know thereby that the Garment of his Righteousness whom those Beasts with whose skins they were clad did typifie would do their Souls more good than the Fig-leaves of their own Righteousness could with all their patching be able to do Reflector The Salvation of Solomon is much-what like to that of Adam and Eve's and both equally probable though not certainly known and revealed Answer Nothing will please you I see but what agrees with your Phansie You Question here the Salvation of Solomon because it is not Revealed As if all Persons mentioned in Scripture must have such a Revelation of their Eternal Happy Estate there set down else you may be at your liberty to judge of them as you please It is true much is written of Solomons Defection But so there is of Noah's Drunkenness as it is called of Lot's Incest of Judah's Incontinency of Reubens Desiling his Fathers Bed of Simeon's and Levi's Cruelty of King Asa his Rage against the Seer who came to him with a Message from the
this Agar is Mount Sinai Rev. 7.9 The seven Heads are seven Mountains So in Sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen. 17. â—3 and a token of the Covenant ver 11. And a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 The Lamb is called the Passover Ex. 2.21 The Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 and in this of our Lords Supper This is the Cup of the new Testament These and the like Instances are commonly used in this case and the Form of Speech is so plain that a Child may understand it Thus he But if Similitudes may be of any force I say not in Argumentation but Illustration in my Judgment there can be nothing more Pregnant to this purpose than a Resemblance that may be made between our Saviour himself and this his own Holy Ordinance Two Natures we believe are personally united in Christ the Divine and Human Now as the distinct Properties of these Natures are by vertue of this Hypostatical Union sometimes applyed and made common to both yet remain themselves entire without any Confusion each with other or Conversion into one another in like manner there being in this Ordinance of our Saviour a Sacramental Union between the ontward visible Sign and the inward and spiritual Grace well may the one be denominated by the other yet remain themselves entirely in their own Nature and Substance as they were before the said Union without any confused mixture one with the other or any real Conversion into each other So the Soul and Body of Man while they are united are oft-times put distinctly for the whole Person of a Man yet are both bounded within their original Beings But the truth is this real corporal Conversion of the Bread into the Body of Christ notwithstanding the Confidence which the Roman Party useth by it to bring on their Oral Manducation of Christs Body in the Mass hath no such Warrant as they dream of from these words of our Saviour which they so much harp upon For it is well known among the Learned as my aforesaid Author observeth out of Cameron and Moulin that the Hebrew Tongue or Syriack in which Christ spake doth not use in this form of Speech any Copula of Subject or Predicate either is or signifieth But sometimes and not always Pronoun as in those places before cited in the old Testamenr no is nor was nor any other Verb is there But thus The seven ears of Corn they seven years the four Beasts four Kings which when they come to be Translated into Greek or Latin then the Idiom of the Language requires it and saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is e. g. The Rock is Christ So that they are much mistaken who to bolster up their devised Transubstantiation place the Emphasis here in this word Is which Word probably our Saviour did not speak when he instituted this Sacrament though it be as it must be so rendred by the Evangelists according as it hath been said to the Idiome of the Language in which they wrote Thus in short we see the Sense which hath been wont to be given of these words of our Saviour by Pious and Learned Men and which passeth for current among us of all sorts To which Sense I also for my part do readily subscribe though I do humbly conceive there is something lacking in it and so not fully comming up to our Saviours meaning I come therefore now according to my Promise to deliver my particular Judgment of it My particular I say because I never heard of it before nor in all my Reading met with it in any Author elder or later that hath written of this Subject And it is as followeth Our Lord Jesus Christ intending as it appeareth to put an end to the old Sacrament of the Paschal Lamb for which his Disciples had been so sollicitous and to Institute this of his last Supper in its stead he therefore having first lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven that he might in the Name of his Father Consecrate the chosen Element of Bread and Wine speaks to his Disciples in this manner and form saying This is my Body and this is my Blood q.d. you have taken that for my Body hitherto according to the Rudiments of the Law of Moses for indeed Christ the Lamb of God was praesigured thereby but now This shall be it hereafter till my Coming again So placing the Emphasis in the word This as by way of distinction from the former Sacrament calling it likewise his Body in opposition to the former shadows not making any other change at all but only one Sacrament instead of another which it's true is generally acknowledged but the premised Emphatical Distinction hath not been heeded as it ought to have been from whence have sprung the differences and hot contentions about the manner of Christs Presence The Apostles themselves so understood it for they never after were inquisitive as they had been about the Passover but were no doubt obedient to the Command of their Lord and Master for he had laid this charge upon them in these words Do this in Remembrance of me as much as to say leave the other undone or use it no more and let none other use it in my Name hereafter The Apostle St. Paul who laboured more abundantly than all the rest of the Apostles kept himself precisely to this command in his Apostolical Office So he telleth the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 11.23 that saith he which I have received of the Lord meaning not from Moses but of Christ have I delivered unto you Yea the very words of our Saviour himself which he spake of the Cup do seem to point out this Sense unto us for as he saith of that This is my Blood of the New Testament so his meaning very probably may be of the Bread This is my Body of the New Testament that is which in the time of the New Testament you and all other to the Worlds end shall take for my Body not that which hath been taken for it under the old For by these words he takes away the first Sacrament of the Passover how else comes it to be out of date And establisheth this of his last Supper the first being an ordinance of the Law to continue during the old Covenant the second he will have to be an ordinance of the Gospel as being more apt to agree with his new Covenant This this I say is clearly the thing that our Lord intended by using this form of Speech when he ordained this new Sacrament in his Church viz. This is my Body He would that his Apostles and his whole Church after them should take his meaning as spoken in this manner This Emphatically This Specifically This Substantially This not the former yet this mystically even as the former was is my Body whereby you shall be united together in bortherly Love your Faith also shall be Confirmed and your Souls strengthned and refreshed unto Life Eternal
heard let them take their rest let curious and sharp-witted men beat their Heads about what Questions themselves will The very Letter of the word of Christ giveth plain security that these Mysteries do as Nails fasten us to his very Cross that by them we may draw out as touching Essicacy Force and Virtue even the Blood of his Gored Side c. They are things wonderful which he feeleth great which he seeth and unheard of which he uttereth whose Soul is possest of this Paschal Lamb and made joyful in the strength of this new Wine c. What these Elements are in themselves it skilleth not it is enough that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ His Promise in witness hereof sufficeth his Words he knoweth which way to accomplish Why should any Cogitation possess the mind of a faithful Communicant but this O my God thou art True O my Soul thou art Happy Thus sweetly thus Christianly thus Divinely would this Holy and humble Man put a peaceable end to this unhappy Controversie A man I say of whom and of his works the Bishop of Rome himself that then was viz. Clement the Eight gives this Character There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his Understanding this man indeed deserves the name of an Author his Books will get Reverence by Age for there is in them such Seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like unto this they shall last till the last fire shall consume all Learning To this purpose did that Pope if my Historian be of ny Credit as I believe he is declare his Opinion Isaac walker when he heard one of his Books of Ecclesiastical Policy read before him But now to draw towards a Conclusion I shall only add one story out of our Martyrologist of a certain Disputation about these very words of our Saviour viz. This is my Body It was really most Eminent the King himself that then was viz. Henry the Eight being a chief Disputant in it the story omitting needless Circumlocutions is as followeth When a great Assembly of the Nobles and other the Chief of the Nation was gathered by express Order and Command from the King from all parts of the Realm and all the Seats and Places were full of men round about the Scaffold within a short time a godly Servant of Jesus Christ one John Lambert was brought from the Prison with a Guard of armed men even as a Lamb to fight with many Lions and placed right against that where the King 's Royal Seat was prepared so that now they tarried but for the King 's coming At length the King himself did come with a great Guard and when the King was set in his Throne he beheld Lambert with a stern Countenance and turning himself to his Counsellors he called forth Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester commanding him to declare unto the People the Cause of that present Assembly and Judgment After he had made an end of his Oration the King standing up upon his Feet leaning upon a Cushion of white Cloth of Tissue turning himself toward Lambert with his Brows bent as it were threatning some terrible thing to him said these words Hoe good fellow what is thy name Then the humble Lamb of Christ humbly kneeling down said my name is John Nicholson although of many I be called Lambert What said the King have you two names I would not trust you having two names although you were my Brother But after many Profaces and much talk had in this manner the poor man shewing the Reason how his name came to be changed the King commanded him to go to the matter and to declare his Mind and Opinion what he thought as touching the Sacrament of the Altar Whereupon Lambert beginning to speak for himself gave thanks to God in that he had inclined the Heart of the King so as not to disdain to hear and understand the Controversies of Religion c Then the King with an angry Voice interrupting him I came not hither saith he to hear mine own Praises c. but briesly go to the matter without any more Circumstance Lambert being abashed at the Kings angry Words contrary to all mons Expectation stayed a while considering with himself what he might do in those great Straits and Extremities But the King being hasty with Anger and Vehemency said why standest thou still Answer as touching the Sacrament of the Altar whether dost thou say that it is the Body of Christ or wilt deny it and with that word the King lifted up his Cap. Then saith Lambert I answer with St Austin that it is the Body of Christ after a certain manner Answer me saith the King neither out of St. Austins nor by the Authority of any other but test me plainly whether thou sayest it is the Body of Christ or no Lambert replyed I deny it then to be the Body of Christ Mark well saith the King for now thou shalt be condemned even by Christ's own Words Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body When this was finished with great Triumphing amongst the Opponents and sundry other Arguments used by them against him all which were common and nothing sorcible the King asked him what sayest thou Art thou not yet satisfied Wilt thou live or dye Thou hast yet free choice Lambert answered I yield and submit my self wholly unto the will of your Majesty Then said the King Commit thy self unto the Hands of God not unto mine Lambert replyed I Commend my Soul unto the Hands of God but my Body I wholly yield and submit unto your Clemency The King replyed very smartly upon him if you do commit your self unto my Judgment you must dye for I will not be a Patron unto Hereticks And thereupon immediately caused the Sentence of Condemnation to be read against him which was Executed in a most terrible manner with greater Cruelty than ordinary Here if may be said was a Bolt soon shot which of it self in Reason could do no hurt but being backt with the Venom of Folly and Phrensie proved deadly For let all mankind judge who are able and impartial was not this a doughty Argument which that King used to drive a poor innocent Lamb to the Slaughter And will not the very Children of this Generation that are instructed in the knowledge of this Truth as it is here opened and made evident be amazed and ashamed to see the Holy Scripture so grosly abused in the maintenance of such a cursed Error Yet was this their Argumentum Achilleum their dead doing Weapon in those days of Ignorance and Cruelty and still is at this very day with our Catholicks falsly so called unless it be that they are of a Catholick Confederacy against Christ and his Gospel which we shall certainly find to our smart and sorrow if ever they come to prevail over us For their hoc est Corpus meum will
prove to us to be but as a Preface to their Writ de Comburendo for their merciless burning of our Bodies But blessed be God we have hitherto been kept out of their reach and blessed for ever of God be the Government which is set over us whereby under God we are still preserved Yet neither do we sleight the words of our Lord which he spake saying This is my Body God forbid that such a Thought should ever enter into our Hearts no but taking them in the sense which he intended they are the Crown of our rejoycing His Promise herein is the greatest Blessing that we can be capable of in this World It is our Life and without it we shall ever be dead in our Sins and Trespasses whatsoever spiritual Quicknings we have in us to heavenly things it is the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ which we have Received into our Hearts by Faith that worketh them in us for we live not as the Apostle St. Paul said but Christ liveth in us It is the Body of Christ and it is the Blood of Christ which filleth the whole inward man inlightning the Understanding Rectifying the Will ordering the Affections putting courage into the Heart to encounter any Difficulties for Christ to suffer any Torments for his sake that can be inflicted upon us by Men or Devils Nay more It is the Body of Christ and it is the Blood of Christ separated each from other which were so taken and Received in the Lords Supper and which continue to be so in the Hearts of those that worthily Received that Holy Sacrament which fully satisfieth all their Hunger and Thirst as bringing a clear Evidence of Christs Death and consequently a full Assurance of the Pardon and Remission of their sins unto them the memorial of Christs Death being the main end why the Sacrament was ordained This in short is that real Presence of Christ in this Holy Ordinance which the Church the Spouse of Christ expecteth so as to be entertained by her Lord at his holy Table and which indeed is only to be desired as being most advantageous unto her As for that Presence of Christ in this Sacrament which Papists contend for let it pass for a Dream as it is It shall even be to use the words of the Prophet As when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth Is 19.8 but he awaketh and his Soul is empty And as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his Soul hath Appetite So shall their hoc est Corpus meum I mean their Doctrine of the Transubstantiation of the outward Elements in the Lords Supper into the Body and Blood of Christ prove to be unto them but a miserable Delusion Never never O my God let my Soul enter into their Secret nor be baptised with a Baptism that they are Baptised with And with this Confidence I do shut up this whole Discourse God Almighty give a Blessing unto it FINIS POSTSCRIPT BUt now it seems to strengthen the Popish Interest Hell is broke loose seditious Pamphlets now flutter about for the discrediting our Religion and our Church which hath been acknowledged the best Reformed Church in the Christian World such Pamphlets I say as are not only against the Doctrine of the true Protestant Religion but against the best Ecclesiastical Discipline also witness that scandalous and scurrilous Piece Gratum opus Agricolis Romanis atque Atheistis Entituled the Naked Truth Second Part whereas in many parts of it I say not in all it rather deserves the Title of impudent Untruth as shall be here made manifest past all Contradiction The Author thereof whom I care not to know being he is Prava Avis in Templis nigroque simillima Spectro begins his Epistle to the Reader with a colloguing Insinuation I had almost said with much Craft and Cunning in this manner No man does more Reverence good Bishops than my self and why so But because he does it may be account himself to be one it is an ill Bird then that will defile his own Nest nor saith he does any man less dread them with a slavish fear But non obstante all his Confidence I who am a poor inconsiderable man shall here take the boldness before I go with him a foot further to expostulate with him in this case Who Sir is there that doth so dread them I know a man who is in the seventy seventh year of his Age and in the fifty third year of his Ordination to the office and order of an Evangelical Priest yet in his full strength blessed be God at which Age fears do commonly as other weaknesses take hold of a man but although he hath in his time lived under the Inspection of many Bishops yet had he never such a fear of them upon him nor have I at this day for the plain truth is there neither was nor is any the least need of it Nor is there I believe any one of our Bishops who is willing to be so dreaded for if curteous Affability fatherly Instruction brotherly Condescention tender Compassion towards the weaker sort be to be found in them and that very frequently constantly upon all emergent Occasions presented before them as I know by experience to be in some of them what do these boasting words signifie but a vain-glorious hussing If they be not a most unchristian Suggestion and slanderous Susurration sufficient to make all that followeth in the whole Tract liable to suspition among wise Men. As indeed many other of his following words do I admire them saith he at my distance which he presumeth is not very great but I do not Idolize them and God forbid that he or any man else should I Honour them but I do not fall down and Worship them as if none could kneel unto them to crave their Blessing like dutiful Sons of their Grave and Reverend Fathers and as all good Subjects do to the King being so in Duty bound because he is Pater Patriae can none I say do this but they must thereupon make Idols of them and Worship them I can say saith he my Lord and not add my God But let me ask again does any do so or say so Sure there is not such a Polytheism to be found among us here in this Nation though there be God be merciful to us much Atheisin which is like to grow up to a more prodigious Height than it hath yet attained by the means of this and the like prodigious Pamphlets that are scattered among us The man goeth on in his Apology thus You will not find in this ensuing Inquiry the least tang of Bitterness or yellow Choler no not so much as one tart or harsh Expression being so far from justly disgusting any that I shall not so much as set their Teeth on edge so insipied and simple an Humour have I cherisht all-a-long through this whole Discourse for
only Relatively For then we should make such a distinction as is inconsistent with the Catholick Faith and therefore it is gross Ignorance in this Objector and all his Complices to dream of such a matter But because there seems to be a necessity that this Mystery be explained I shall therefore endeavour upon this occasion so far as I can be able to reach the Sence of the Spirit of God in it revealed in holy Scripture to open it here more largely It is not to be doubted there is nothing more intelligible than God because he is the first the Perfectest and Truest Being the first mover which ordereth all things but receiveth no order from any the purest Act the highest sublimated Elixir the Supreamest Entity the most sovraign and simple Essence without any the least imaginary Metaphysical Composition at all Yet is our Understanding of him whether we be in the Body or out of the Body whether in this Life or that which is to come so short and so shallow of a total Penetration into his Essence that we must let that alone for ever Job 11.7.8 Zophar's Question to Job will put us all to a Nonplus canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection It is high as Heaven what canst thou do Deeper than Hell what canst thou know We read Gen. 32.29 how God Rebuked Jacob for his inquiring after his name Tell me I pray thee saith he thy name and he said wherefore is it that thou doest ask after my name Yet to let him see what he was without telling him any name He Blessed him there So when Manoah Judg. 13.16 would be inquisitive in the like kind he met with the same Repulse Why askest thou thus after my name seeing it is secret or wonderful and accordingly he made it known in his wonderful Work which he then wrought And verily to talk much of Gods Name I mean of an appellative distinctive Notamen is not cannot be safe the way of Negation is indeed and must be accounted the best and safest for us to take in speaking of God that is to shew not what he is but what he is not Numb 23.19 1 Sam. 18.29 After this manner did the Prophets of old speak of God Balaam the false Prophet as well as Samuel the true could say God is not a man that he should Lye nor the Son of Man that he should Repent It will not become us boldly to gaze upon the glorious Excellency of God or to break into his Pavillion rather it is our Duty to settle our Thoughts upon those negative Expressions of him viz. that he is Immortal Invisible Infinite Immense Incorporeal Unchangeable c. And whosoever he be that shall presumptuously ask Who is God or what is his Name He may be answered God is not such an one as thy self But he is such an one as will Reprove thee for thy unreverend and rash Intrusion into the Secret of his Soveraignty He hath no Compeere either in Nature or in Honour being Vnissimus Deus One alone and none besides him Es 45.6 c. neither hath he any proper name at all such names being used among us for distinction sake and for the avoiding of Error in mistaking one for another which danger is not Incident to the one only True God 'T is true we read of names of God in Scripture but they only shew the Essential Properties of God being Numina rather than Nomina for Numen Incomprehensibile est Deus was the saying of old sed omnino absque nomine But Christ hath a proper Name given him and he is to be known by it unto his Church for ever Undoubtedly therefore it ought to be used with Reverence by all those that receive Comfort and Benefit by the Sense and significancy of it Which Duty should be done according to the Tenour of the aforesaid Canon upon these two Considerations First because that for our sakes our Lord Jesus made himself of no Reputation 2. Because a sort of wretched men in the World about us set on by the Devil Conspire together to make him of no Reputation also First for our sake he made himself of no Reputation great Reason therefore that we should account him worthy of all Honour Not only that which is spiritual in captivating every Thought to the Obedience of his Gospel but that also which is of the Body in the outward Deportment of it for he hath bought it with a Price a great Price even his dearest Blood as well as the Soul It was no Robbery for him to be equal with God for he was and is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory the Character of his Person yet Saint Paul tells us he emptied himself and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross Now Quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior said holy Bernard sweetly the more Humility appeared in him it is but meet that the more honour be ascribed unto him Admit that it be not a duty of the Text to use Genu-slexions at the mentioning of his Blessed Name when we are employed in the publick Exercises of our Religion yet since the Father hath even upon the account of his Humility highly exalted him and given him a name above every Name it well becometh the Church upon the same account in a Conformity to that divine Pattern according to her poor strength and ability by all ways and means to exalt him likewise This then I conceive may somewhat stop the mouth of Contradiction against the Religious Canon of our Church requiring all Persons to Bow at the Name of Jesus for why she hath learned it of the Father whose Example is without Controversie in this case worthy of Imitation to exalt him because for our sake he made himself of no Reputation Again is not our Lord now as it hath been Prophecied of him Is 53.3 despised and rejected of men Do not Jews Turks and Infidels blaspheme his worthy Name by which we are called Are not Socinians those cursed Hereticks as unwearied now in their malice against him to lay his honour in the dust as the Arrians were of old Is not the Precious Blood of this Immaculate Lamb of God shed to take away the sins of the World in many places beslavered with the impious Mouths of execrable Swearers And are not some wretched people risen up among us in these days who out of a Luciserian Pride pretend that they are as well and as truly God as Jesus Christ because they have their Being in God and are partakers of the Divine Nature What then should the Church do but out of a detestation of these horrid Impieties and out of a tender regard to the Honour of her Lord give a signal Testimony of her duty in commanding all