Heaven yet art thou still really on Earth Nor is any part of thee that is either thy Mind or Body really in Heaven there to receive Nourishment Shouldst thou never so Seriously fix thy Thoughts on Rome or on Hierusalem couldst thou be therefore said to be really at Rome or in Hierusalem It remains therefore that thou shew how thy Soul which ascends not really into Heaven can be really Fed with the Flesh of CHRIST unless CHRIST be truly and really on Earth and there also in many places at one and the same time since many of you at the very same moment Communicate both in England and France But thou wilt Reply thou art indeed ignorant of the manner yet certainly knowst that thou art Fed. Is it so If thou knowst not by what means these things are done then art thou not sure but it may be by Transubstantiation Why then dost thou with so great Boldness and Fury inveigh against it But be it that thou knowst not the Manner yet thou at least knowst that the Manner is such as may not in Thought and Faith only but in very Deed joyn thee to CHRIST's Body or else thou must confess that thou dost not indeed receive CHRIST's Body For thou sayst that by Faith thou eatest our Lords Body Now what doest thou mean by these words That thou by Faith hold'st and believ'st Vertue so to flow into thy Soul from the Body of CHRIST who is in Heaven that thou art thereby in some sort united to him But this O Sectary is not really to receive CHRIST's Body 't is at most to receive it but imaginarily For that Power and those Vertues which thou say'st flow from CHRIST into thee are not indeed CHRIST's Body And thou believest that thou receivest really nothing else Nor dost thou I suppose eat these Vertues Why therefore to elude the Sentence of the Fathers who testify That CHRIST's Flesh and Blood is in very deed receiv'd do you make use of such vain Deceits saying that you also hold the same But if thou say'st that thou by Faith apprehend'st and believ'st CHRIST's Body to be really Communicated to thee I answer that this Faith of thine is even in thine own Judgement false and ridiculous as making thee believe that which is not Since in thy Opinion our Lords Body is no where but in Heaven and thou art really no where but on Earth But because thou frequently appeal'st to the Scriptures come and let us hear what they say In St. Matthew Chap. xxvi our Saviour says This is my Body this is my Blood In St. Mark Chap. xiv This is my Body this is my Blood In St. Luke Chap. xxii This is my Body this is the Chalice of the New Testament in my Blood In St. John Chap. vi Vnless ye shall eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye shall not have Life in you And St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians ch xi pronounces him who comes unworthily to the Eucharist Guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord. These are plain Words no perplex'd Testimonies nor things mention'd but once 〈◊〉 which being clearly vanquish'd you presently fly to 〈◊〉 â—xposition whereas when any thing seems to favâ—â— you ye stick close to the letter refuse all Interpretation and cry out we must adhere to the Word of GOD. As if you were the sole Judges and had Authority at your pleasure one while to decide by the bare Text of Scripture without admitting any Expositor and soon after to appeal to Interpretations and those only of your own Invention But come on What do you object against us Arguments you say taken out of the Scriptures First that the Eucharist is sometimes in the Scripture call'd Bread and Wine Next that CHRIST said in St. John chap. vi It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The words which I have spoken unto you are Spirit and Life Lastly That CHRIST sits at the Right-hand of the Father and shall come from thence to Judge the quick and the dead But I answer that these words are more obscure than those you would have explain'd by them to wit This is my Body my Flesh is Meat indeed Now what kind of Philosophy is this to explain one Obscurity by a greater or that I may speak more truly to gather the Sense of a clear place from a dark one But what if we should say that these Places you object against us are to be interpreted by those we have alledg'd What if we deny that you have any more Right to expound them than we You bring only doubtful Arguments and such as will be turn'd upon your selves Nor will it be any great labour briefly to solve them all The Eucharist you say is in the Scriptures call'd Bread and Wine Therefore the Scriptures you say acknowledge Bread and Wine to be truly in that Sacrament Proceed Sectary and by the same Argument more closely press us in this manner The Catholicks in their Discourses and Prayers frequently call the Eucharist Bread They believe therefore that there is in it true Bread and not only our Lords Body Is not the reason and strength of the Argument the same Why will you rather make the Scriptures when they mention the Eucharist by the Name of Bread and Wine to assert true Bread and Wine to be therein than us Catholicks when we call it by the same Names Give me leave therefore thus to retort this Argument upon you In the Catholick Church we often term the Eucharist Bread and Wine and yet believe not any Substance of Bread or Wine to be therein Therefore it cannot from the Scriptures using the same Names be concluded that they acknowledge true Bread and Wine to remain in it Lay aside Sectary the prejudice of thy Faction and tell me whether thou art not more justly overthrown by the same Argument with which thou assaulted'st us For that we often style this Sacrament Bread and Wine is so well known to those who live amongst us that 't were Impudence to deny it and gross Ignorance not to know it How often do we desire that not only the Eating but the Effect of this Bread may be granted us How often do we beg of GOD the Father that this Bread may be to us not a pledge of Death but of Glory And all this by Similitudes and Figures Which kind of Speeches you your selves also do not deny to be frequent in Holy Writ So St. Bernard whom none can without blushing deny to be ours calls the Eucharist Bread when in his first Sermon on the sixth Sunday after Pentecost distinguishing Bread into several Species he says Moreover the seventh kind of Bread is the Eucharist because our Saviour says the Bread which I give is my Flesh for the Life of the World. We therefore with the Scriptures call this Sacrament Bread Both because as the Natural Man lives by Bread so does the Spiritual Man by the Eucharist
To signify which CHRIST commanded it to be made of Bread and Wine and many of the Fathers by Our daily Supersubstantial Bread which we are taught to Pray for understand this Heavenly Food And also because it is in the Form of Bread but principally because 't was Bread before For we often call a thing that now is by the Name it formerly had And how often have you heard from our Writers the Example of Aaron's Rod which being turn'd into a Serpent was certainly no longer a Rod unless you will say that GOD rather put an Illusion on Pharaoh's Eyes than by a real Miracle admonish'd him of his Majesty and yet even then it was call'd a Rod to wit Because it had from a Rod been chang'd into a Serpent And they all cast down their Rods which were turn'd into Serpents but Aaron 's Rod devour'd their Rods Exod. Chap. vii But not to say much against so weak an Argument The Scriptures call the Eucharist Bread Be it so The Antient Fathers have often done the same And we also do the same Why then may we not be believ'd to think with those with whom we speak Nor is the Arrow of any greater force they shoot against us from these words of our Lord It is the Spirit which quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing For if they will have them simply understood That the Flesh of Christ profiteth nothing I would ask them why they then say that our Lord's Body is receiv'd by them in the Eucharist Nay why CHRIST said Vnless ye shall Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood ye shall not have Life in you Do they think that CHRIST contradicted himselfe Or will they deny it to have been always believ'd in the Church that CHRIST's Flesh profiteth the Receiver They must ever be fain to distinguish between the manner how our Lord's Flesh being receiv'd profits and how it profits not They must to wit acknowledge that the Capharnaits hearing CHRIST's Words fancy'd to themselves some gross unworthy and carnal manner in which he would affirm he should be eaten My Flesh so taken as you in your selves imagine profits not I will give my self in a more Noble and Spiritual manner than you believe and being by you taken for Food will quicken your Souls And thus of the manner of taking and not meerly of the taking it self did CHRIST say The Flesh profiteth nothing Let us now see the Force of your Argument CHRIST says His Flesh taken as the Capharnaits fancy'd will profit nothing Therefore say you it will not profit being taken in such manner as the Catholicks believe But thou must first O Sectary prove that we think as the Capharnaits did and that we will not hear the Spirit which quickens Now both these are false The Capharnaits as is manifest from the Scriptures had no higher conceit of our Saviours words than that he promis'd His Body should be eaten as other Meats that it should be divided into parts taste like Flesh and being taken Consume We in a Spiritual quickning Sense believe that CHRIST is indeed truly and really present in the Eucharist but after a Spiritual and Incomprehensible manner that he is receiv'd by us whole inviolate and never consuming Thus will there be a mutual agreement between those words of our Lord by which he asserts that His Flesh is truly given for Meat and those others by which he shews that if you understand this matter Carnally with the Capharnaits The Flesh profiteth nothing Now if you deny that the Flesh of our Lord is any way profitable you will contradict those words Vnless ye shall Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have Life in you But if you say that 't is in some manner but not in that Capharnaitical one both receiv'd and profitable This indeed we shall readily grant but shall withall add that this Holy manner is in our Church and that neither these Texts nor any other have any thing to the contrary You say lastly that the Scriptures often affirm that CHRIST is and shall be in Heaven till he shall come in great Majesty at the end of the World And that therefore he cannot be on Earth in the Eucharist in the Hands of the Priests The Answer is ready CHRIST is and shall be in Heaven in that great and visible Majesty till the end of the World. He is not seen publickly by us in that Brightness nor is he yet so much as Conversant amongst us to receive those Offices which may be indeed profitable to a Body Such as St. Mary Magdalen perform'd when she Anointed him and in respect of which our Saviour said The poor you have always with you but me you have not always He will not therefore come down from Heaven In the Glory of His Majesty till the calling of all Men to Judgment But he is often present at our Affairs in another manner after another Fashion with lesser State he is I say often truly and really present with us here on Earth He appear'd in the way to St. Paul as he was going to Damascus and spake to him in the way So says Ananias to St. Paul Act. ix Our Lord JESUS hath sent me who appear'd to thee in the way as thou camest And Barnabas declar'd to the Apostles How Paul had seen our Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him And Acts xxxiii Now the night following our Lord standing by him said Be constant for as thou hast testify'd of me in Hierusalem so must thou testify at Rome also And lastly Act. xxvi I am JESUS whom thou Persecutest But arise and stand upon thy feet For to this end have I appear'd to thee that I may ordain thee a Minister and Witness of those things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear to thee And say not that 't was an Angel who having taken CHRIST's shape appear'd to St. Paul. For to let pass its being distinguish'd in the Acts of the Apostles when our Saviour or when an Angel appear'd to St. Paul he himself has in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. xv taken away the doubt where after he had to prove CHRIST's Resurrection to them affirm'd him to have been seen after his rising again by his Apostles and Disciples he adds And last of all he was seen of me also as of an Abortive Now 't is certain that this his being seen of St. Paul was not till some years after the day of his Ascension For St. Paul was a long time a Persecutor not an Apostle 'T is certain also that 't was not an Angel but CHRIST himself who thus appear'd to St. Paul Since he affirms him to have been the same that was seen by St. Peter and the other Apostles to assure them of his Resurrection For sure thou wilt not say that 't was an Angel and not our Lord himself that appear'd to the Apostles during the fourty days which
Bernard dy'd fifty years before Innocent the III. was advanc'd to the Pontificat Now what can be more express than these words of his in his Sermon on our Lords Supper This is truly an Heavenly Favour this is certainly an abundant Grace this is surely a super excellent Glory that a Priest should hold his GOD and with his Hand give him to others But left he should repeal these Testimonies by such frivolous Exceptions as you for the most part use pretending that an universal Darkness had then over-shadow'd all Mankind and driven them into many and great Errors let us go back to those Ages which were even in your own Judgment uncorrupted We have already given you not only the Judgment of St. Augustin but also the Opinion and Practice of the Church describ'd by him That the Eucharist is a Victim whereby our Sins are effac'd that 't is a Sacrifice that 't is a Propitiation which is offer'd to GOD for the Dead You require those that are more Antient than St. Augustin St. Justin Martyr the very next Age after the the Apostles in his second Apology to the Emperor has these Words As by the Word of GOD our Saviour JESVS CHRIST was Incarnate and took Flesh and Blood for our Salvation So we are taught that by Prayers taken from GOD's Word the Eucharist by him made Food with which our Blood and Flesh are through mutation nourish'd is the Flesh and Blood of that Incarnate JESVS St. Hilary who liv'd in the third Age of the Church says in his eighth Book of the Trinity There is no room to doubt of the Truth of the Flesh and Blood For now both by the Profession of our Lord himself and our own Faith it is truly Flesh and truly Blood. St. Gregory Nyssen of the same Age in his Catechetical Oration chap. 37. We rightly believe that the Bread sanctify'd by the Word of GOD is truly chang'd into the Body of GOD the Word St. Chrysostom in his two and fiftieth Homily on St. Matthew speaks thus Why should he disdain to give thee his Body who did more that is laid down his Life for thee Let us hear therefore Priests as well as others how great how admirable a thing is granted us let us hear I Pray and tremble he has deliver'd us Flesh he has set before us himself Immolated And St. Cyril of Hierusalem more Antient than St. Chrysostom says in his fourth Catechism That a Christian Man knows and certainly holds this Bread which is seen by us not to be Bread though the Taste thinks it to be Bread but the Body of CHRIST and the Wine which is beheld by us though it seem Wine to the Sense of Tasting yet not to be Wine but the Blood of CHRIST What needs many Words No Age of the Primitive Church none of the Fathers dissented The Testimonies of all Ages and Writers have been formerly given thee by such as have thought good to handle this Argument more at large Let me now speak to thee O Sectary if thou desirest to be cur'd This is one of the greatest Affairs in the Christian Faith whether in the Eucharist be CHRIST himself or only Bread which is the Figure of CHRIST's Body In so great a matter and in which to err is certain Destruction consider whether side is supported by the safest Arguments As to the Scriptures 't would be Impudence to affirm that there are clearer or even as clear Words for you as these are for us This is my Body this is my Blood The Bread which I will give is my Flesh. Some places therefore are plain and clear of themselves and others which want Interpretation we expound according to the Sentiments of Men certainly great and numerous whose Wisdom Learning and Piety were remarkable and lastly as is most agreeable to the Divine Institution This is my Body Now if you would understand what the Sense of the Church was from the Apostles time it can no way better be understood than by that of the Fathers who then liv'd But there is not any one of the Fathers that have written of the Eucharist whom we approve not or whom we refuse for our Judge For though some of them may have sometimes us'd certain obscure Words which you also have endeavour'd to abuse for the support of your Heresies yet is there none of them that have spoken thus dubiously who has not also other Words extant which are plain and clear for us Nay most of them have so written that asserting our Opinion they cannot be so much as imagin'd to have the least Word or Expression which favours your Heresy Then if you have regard to the Consent of Christians it must be confess'd that not only the Latin and Greek Churches but all Christians throughout the whole World unanimously agree in our Opinion So that which way soever you seek for Arguments there are still more for us If the Learning of the Persons be respected we have far the greater part of Men famous for Knowledge if Ages we have unquestionably more if the number of Men you may well be asham'd to compare with us Thus being every way inferior to us you have nothing remaining but your Obstinacy and vain Incredulity which with you is call'd Prudence or Wisdom wholly consisting in such kind of Philosophy as this Can GOD do this or is it likely that he would what Inconveniencies hence arise how unworthy is this of the Divine Majesty After the same manner did the Heathens put up Queries against CHRIST and the Arians against the Trinity Away with this vain Solicitude You may possibly sometimes know why GOD's Works are done but never how Give me leave to use the Words of St. Ambrose Who says he 11 Hexam Chap. 1. seeing these things can with his weak understanding search out a possibility of the Reason All which the Divine Power not to be comprehended by humane Minds nor express'd by our Discourses has knit together by the Authority of his own Will. But if thou O Sectary art not mov'd by our Agreement let the blind Contention that is among your selves startle thee Since divided into Sects you with great bitterness contend about the Opinion you ought to have of this Sacrament Would to GOD thou knewest how pleasant it is to prostrate thy self before the Altar Where the Angels says St. Chrysosthm in his third Homily on the Epistle to the Ephesians with Trembling Reverence the Host How sweet it is there to Adore our Lord Who to use St. Augustin's words in his Commentary on the 98 Psalm walk'd here in the Flesh and gave the same Flesh to be eaten by us for our Salvation How far lastly it excells all humane Delights to reject vain Circumstances and believe only the Word of GOD to which so many foregoing Ages have Assented to acknowledge that to be our Lords Body which our Lord himself has affirm'd to be his Body and with a Mouth of Flesh to receive in all due Humility the Flesh of our Lord that he may nourish our Souls with the effect of the Sacrament and the Spirit which quickneth None shall before the Tyranny of Antichrist deprive the Faithful of these Joyes nor can any one but he who has experienc'd them comprehend them The End of the second Chapter ADVERTISEMENT THere being many Excellent Pieces of the same Author containing a Direct Short and Full Proof of all those Points commonly Objected to Roman Catholicks by Sectaries as having furnish'd a pretended Occasion of their Schism I design God willing one by one to prepare them for the Press that the World may see how unreasonable and groundless are all the Exceptions made against Us and Manifestly Repugnant to God's Holy Word and the received Judgment of all Antiquity