away and will walk no more with him in the Communion of his Church Having thus made it to appear that these words of Christs Institution This is my Body according to the Rules of human discourse ought to be taken in a proper Sense not only if considered in themselves but especially if we regard what Christ hath said before touching the Sacrament to dispose his Apostles thus to believe them it will necessarily follow that those words also of the Institution This do in remembrance of me which relate chiefly to the Priests Power and Duty as the other did to the Body of Christ in the Sacrament and which St. Paul explains in these words As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords Death till he come ought not to be considered as a determination of the former words of the Institution in a Figurative Sense after the Sacramentarian way but as a Declaration of one great end of the Sacrament viz. The calling to mind and setting forth of Christs Death till he comes which is so far from being a Reason to prove that Christs Body is not Really there that on the contrary this Commemoration and Annunciation is founded upon the Real Presence of Christs Sacrificed Body and Blood in this Sacrament since without this it could not be done so effectually in Christs Church as now it is For as the Jews in eating the Peace-Offerings did remember that they were slain for them so by Offering here the Real Body of Christ after the manner of an unbloody Sacrifice we commemorate and set forth in this lively Exemplar that Bloody Sacrifice which Christ himself offered in a different manner upon the Cross and receive the benefit thereof which we need not to question since he gives us daily of this Victim to feed upon in the Blessed Sacrament tho' without the horror of Blood. Shall Christians then under a pretence of Celebrating the Memory of the Passion in the Eucharist evacuate Christs Institution by taking away from this pious Commemoration that which he out of his tender love hath given us as most efficacious in it for the good of our Bodies into which this Sacrifice of Christs Body being received Sanctifies them and Consecrates and prepares them for a Glorious Resurrection as wells as for the good of our Souls Ought we not to consider that Jesus Christ doth not only Command us to remember him but likewise that we should do this by feeding upon his Sacramented Body and Blood since he doth not say that Bread and Wine should be a Memorial of his Body and Blood but that in doing what he prescribes us to do which is that in Receiving his Body and Blood we should remember him And what more precious and lively Memorial could he give to his Disciples and to all his beloved Children what better Legacy could he bequeath them at his departure out of the World than this If the the Primitive Christians were inflamed with Zeal and Devotion when they approached to the Monuments where the Bodies only of Holy Martyrs lay Intombed more especially if they could but touch any of their precious Reliqus being by this means stirred up to a Pious Memorial and imitation of their Holy Lives and Deaths and therefore did Religiously preserve the smallest pieces and even the Nails of that Cross upon which Christ suffered Commemorating thereby his Holy Passion how much more then should our Memory and Love be excited when we approach to the Holy Altar and know that we Receive there tho' veiled under the Sacred Symbols the very Body and Blood of our Lord who Sacrificed himself for us enlivened and quickened by his Grace and Spirit I could now proceed to shew for the further confirmation of what I have here alledged from the Authority of Holy Scripture that unless the words of St. Johns Gospel above mentioned as also the words of our Saviours Institution be taken in the Sense of the Reality or Transubstantiation that there is no promise to be found in Holy Writ of any Spiritual vertue to accompany this Sacrament so that our Adversaries whilst they are so eager to oppose the Reality do as much as in them lies destroy the nature and end of this Blessed Institution and have no argument at all to use against the Socinian who denies the Real Vertue as well as the Real Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament Which is the reason why I do sometimes term this Vertue which the Author without ground conceives to be in this Ordinance tho' separate from Christs Real Body Imaginary because there is no reason to conclude the vertue of the Body to be here from Scripture unless the Body be so too not that I would derogate at all from the vertue of Christs Body which by reason of the Hypostatical union is Infinite But this task is already performed by a Learned Modern Author And the Reader may easily discern the Truth of what I have here asserted by inspecting such places of Holy Scripture as relate to this Sacrament into the number of which they will not allow the sixth Chapter of St. Johns Gospel to be admitted Having therefore thus explained those places of Holy Scripture which relate to the Blessed Sacrament as also those other Forms of speaking both of Divine and Human Authority which the Author is pleas'd to compare with the Words of our Lords Institution and shew'd upon comparing them together that they will not at all fit his purpose but prove the quite contrary to what he would have them to do I shall now sum up such of the Reasons and Arguments for the understanding the Words in which our Saviour Instituted this Blessed Sacrament in a proper Sense as the Catholic Church expounds them as are plainly deduced from the Nature and End of this Holy Institution and the Manner of expressing it in Holy Scripture which I intreat the Christian Reader seriously to consider of and so conclude this Head of Discourse 1. Because Christ the great Lover of Souls never spake to his Apostles and Disciples in Figures and Parables which had any obscurity or difficult Sense especially if the Discourse related to the Practice of a necessary Duty with an intention to keep them in Ignorance but that their humble and well disposed minds might be the more excited and inflamed with a desire of inquiring into and understanding the true meaning of what he said and that they might the better retain it And because in all such cases even of less difficulty than this of the Sacrament as particularly in the Parable of the Sower of Seed altho' the Mystery concerning the success of the Gospel which was herein prefigured was not necessary for every one to know as that of the Eucharist was Christ did fully explain himself to his Disciples who were also to instruct others Therefore since the words of the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament if understood Figuratively as the
disapprove of the Definition made in King Edwards time and that they were for a Real Presence And of this we can make no doubt when we peruse the Writings of those Pastors who succeeding them till this very time have given so full an account of their Faith in this weighty instance and yet have past uncensur'd nay have been of greatest esteem in their Church And how indeed can we imagin that Men of the least sincerity would leave an Article of infinite concern to Mens Immortal Souls in so undeterminat a Sense that Christians might believe which they pleas'd either that Christs Body was thus Really present in the Sacrament which if it were not they incurr'd the guilt of gross Idolatry or that it was not so which if Really it was they were guilty of Infidelity in not believing Our Lord upon his Word and a breach of the first Commandment in not Worshipping the second Person in the Trinity presenting himself to us in this Sacrament according to that saying of the Great St. Augustin concerning this matter Peccamus non adorando We sin in not Worshipping Such an Equivocation as this in an Assembly of Christian Pastors upon the proposal of so great a Point must needs have been of far more dangerous consequence to Christians than the Ambiguous Answers of the Delphic Oracle were to the Heathen World. This far then the business is clear'd that the Real and not Virtual Presence only of Christs Body in the Sacrament was the Doctrin of the English Church for what some Men amongst them of great Latitude in Belief have maintain'd to the contrary doth not prejudice the truth which the more sound of that Communion have generally asserted And notwithstanding that their Late Clergy in the Year 1661. in compliance to the Dissenting Party by the chief management of the late Lord Shaftsbury's Politic Spirit were induced after hard solliciting to receive an Additional Declaration tho' not Printed in their Rubrick Letter at the end of their Communion Service yet since they would not by any means be brought to receive the former Declaration of King Edward the Sixth's time without the change of those words It is here declared that no Adoration is here intended or ought to be done unto any Real and Essential Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood into these which follow It is here declared that no Adoration is here intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there Bodily Received or unto any Corporal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood the words Real and Essential as you see being changed into Corporal this cannot but reasonably be imagin'd to be done out of Caution to the Present Church her maintaining still a Real and Essential Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament whereas those in the latter time of King Edward seem to have denied it Moreover tho' it be said in this last Declaration that the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very Natural Substances and therefore may not be Adored yet if by Natural Substances or Essences here is no more meant as the words may very well be understood and are shewn by Catholics to be understood in the Authorities of Theodoret and Gelasius than the external and sensible Essences or properties of Bread and Wine and not the internal Substance or Essence this Declaration will not be repugnant either to the Real Presence or to Transubstantiation and the Adoration will be terminated neither on the Internal or External Essences of Bread and Wine but upon Christ the only begotten Son of God Really Present in the Blessed Sacrament which the Council of Trent it self hath declared to be the Sense of the Catholic Church as to the Point of Adoration Again if the last part of this Declaration wherein it is said that the Natural Body and Blood of Christ are in Heaven and not here it being against the Truth of Christs Natural Body to be at one time in more places than one be yet urg'd to prove that the above mention'd Real Presence of Christs Body in the Eucharist is not at present the Doctrin of the English Church I answer that whereas it is there said that the Natural Body and Blood of Christ are in Heaven and not here meaning in the Sacrament if by Natural Body be there understood Christs Body according to the Natural manner of a Bodies being present and according to which tho' in a glorified state it actually exists in Heaven we do not say that the Body of Christ is here in this Sacrament in that natural manner any more than the Doctors of the English Communion but if no more be mean't by the words Natural Body but the very true and as we may call it Essential Body of Christ tho' present in a supernatural manner proper to the Sacrament it is a very bold assertion to say absolutely that it is against the Truth of it to be so or that this cannot possibly be true since we know so little to what the Omnipotence of God which could convey this very Body into the Room where the Disciples were the Doors being fast shut can extend it self and yet the Body be the very same Body in verity of Nature which is in Heaven the Presence of which in the Sacrament a late Eminent Author of the English Church sufficiently intimates that some he might have said very many of their Divines have maintain'd notwithstanding the vain endeavors which the Answerer to the Treatise Printed at Oxford to shew the sentiment of the Church of England Divines in this Point has us'd to wrest them to another Sense For after having told us his own Opinion viz. that all which the Doctrin of his Church meaning the Church of England implies is only a Real Presence of Christ's Invisible Power and Grace so in and with the Elements as by the Faithful receiving of them to convey Spiritual and Real Effects to the Souls of Men he subjoyns if any one yet thinks that some at least of our Divines have gone farther than this i. e. do seem to speak of the Presence of the very same Body which is in Heaven let them know says he it is the Doctrin of our Church I am to defend and not of every particular Divine in it Now altho' by those wary terms of every particular Divine and seeming to speak he endeavors what he can both to diminish the number and their clear acknowledgment of the Presence of the same Body in the Sacrament which is in Heaven yet he could not but know that the Asserters of it were very many and still are even since the Declaration and such as may be presumed to know the meaning of it as cunningly worded as it is as well if not better than himself and for this besides what I have had by particular converse with divers I will appeal to the sincerity of those who have heard the Determinations which
and such passages in it it is possible all this may be otherwise The second is how high soever he talk of the Catholics not being certain and his own being sure of having the Scripture for them yet he doth not vouchsafe to tell us what he means by that Word viz. whether express Texts or deductions only If express Texts Let him produce one if he can for that new Article of his Creed a Creed much younger than that of Pope Pius the fourth I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine c. If Deductions only Why may not the Catholics who have the express Words of Scripture that it is his Body infer as surely from thence that there is a change in the Elements of Bread and Wine as the Protestants who have no such express Text that it is not his Body can do to prove that there is no change DISCOURSE Of the first of these I shall now treat and endeavour to shew against the Church of Rome That in this Sacrament there is no substantial change made of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the natural Body and Blood of Christ that Body which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross for so they explain that hard word Transubstantiation ANSWER Of the former of these I shall now treat and endeavour to vindicate the Catholic Church which declares it as an Article of Faith that by Vertue of Consecration in the Sacrament there is a Conversion made of the whole substance of the Bread into the substance of the Body of our Lord and of the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of his Blood which Conversion she conveniently and properly calls Transubstantiation a hard word indeed to those who will not believe the great Mystery expressed by it DISCOURSE Before I engage in this Argument I cannot but observe what an unreasonable task we are put upon by the bold confidence of our Adversaries to dispute a matter of Sense which is one of those things about which Aristotle hath long since pronounc'd there ought to be no dispute ANSWER Before I engage in this Argument I cannot but observe what an unreasonable task we are put upon by the bold confidence of our Adversary not to dispute a matter of sense since upon this all parties are agreed that there ought to be no dispute but to Answer all the absurdities which the Author is engaged in by espousing false principles and among the rest as the chief that Sense can judge of the internal nature or substance of things For all that is the proper object of Sense that is the species or outward accidents of Bread and Wine are allowed to be present in the Sacrament by all Catholics as well as Separatists And we strangely admire that he should not remember that Rule of his Master Aristotle which every young Scholar learns in the beginning of his Logick that Substantia non incurrit in sensus Substance is not the object of sense From whence it is apparent to all Men that have the use of their Reason that all the Authors cracking confidence upon this Argument is founded upon a vulgar Error slily insinuated that Catholics believe that which they see in the Sacrament of the Eucharist to be the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ But lest any should be deceived with this popular Argument and take up a prejudice against us as in good reason they may since they are made to believe that we would perswade them out of their Senses I shall be so far from endeavouring to do this as the Author fondly imagins all Catholics do that rather out of a deep sentiment of gratitude to the great God of Nature who hath so fearfully and wonderfully made these Bodies of ours I shall freely acknowledge that the Senses do not deceive us at all For the deception doth not lie at any time in the Senses but in the Judgment and the Senses do always give true hints to the mind when their Organs and the Medium are rightly disposed and they are employed about their proper and adequate Objects What we may certainly conclude from the goodness and veracity of God is that he will not deceive Man the Creature that he loves and therefore usually those objects which are represented to him by his Senses as having relation to the conservation of his Body are of such and such a determinate substance as the outward and sensible accidents do hint them to be of So that he is not mistaken in them unless he judge rashly and then too there are means provided by which he may correct his Error Thus the substance of Fire is generally represented under the species or usual form of Fire Of a Dove under the usual form or likness of a Dove So that we may allow in this manner that ordinarily the substance doth incur into the mind through the Senses by means of the accidents but it is certain that the Senses cannot judge either of the substance or accidents Therefore God who is the Author of Nature and can change it when he pleaseth that Man may not be deceived in this kind doth usually inform him when he maketh any substantial change of this Nature in his Creatures which is above the reason of Man to comprehend from any hints made by his senses as being truly Miraculous Thus when the Holy Ghost appeared in the form of a Dove Man was informed by God that it was really the Holy Ghost in substance of Nature and not a Dove When the same Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the Visible appearance of Cloven Tongues of Fire they had notice from Heaven that this was truly that Holy Spirit which came in this Visible shape When Angels appeared in the forms of Men they had it revealed to them that they were notwithstanding Angels When our Lord presented himself to his Disciples under the species of Bread he told them plainly that it was his Body To shew which Revelation to have been made from the Authority of Holy Scripture and Fathers will be the subject of the ensuing Discourse This which I have here said being fully conclusive against the Argument of sense's being properly the Judge of substance And now who is it that abuseth the senses the Author or Catholics He by applying them to judge of substance which is an object that is no way adequate to them would make them to deceive Men. We employing them about their proper objects which are here the accidents or outward species of Bread and Wine which as by them we are convinced do still remain after Consecration prove the Miracle from sense because at the same time that these appear the understanding being inlightened by Faith discerns the true and real substance of Christs Body to be veiled under them which makes the thing truly Miraculous To employ therefore the senses about
said This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed or more properly poured out for you and for many for the remission of Sins Did not our Lord plainly read in the minds of his Disciples that by the Cup they would understand that which was contained in the Cup If any one should advise the Author when he is thirsty to drink off his Glass would he be so inconsiderate as to swallow it together with the Wine Nay further so unhappy is the Author as to urge this instance of holy Scripture in the first place which alone is enough fully to clear the Point against him Neither the Apostles nor any men else could be so ignorant of the manner of human discourse as not to apprehend that our Saviour by the Cup meant what was contained in it which was most certainly Christs Blood for otherwise it could not be said of it as it is Luke 22. 20. that it was then poured out for the Apostles and for many for the remission of Sins it is said is poured out in the Present Tense not shall be poured out in the Future therefore here can be meant only the Blood of Christ as now poured out in the Sacrament for them not as it was afterwards shed from his Crucified Body upon the ground The Original runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where in construction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agrees with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Wine as a Figure only of Christs Blood or signifying its virtue could not be poured out for the remission of Sins You might with more congruity of Speech affirm of an Image of the Blessed Virgin This is that which conceived the Son of God because in this there is some plain resemblance to the Prototype Beza a great Critic in his way though an Adversary to the Catholic Doctrin in this Point not being able to deny this Proof would rather have the Scripture to be thought false although that be the whole Foundation of their Faith than change his Opinion and saith that it is a Solecism and should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He concludes that the holy Spirit or St. Luke that divinely inspired Pen-man the most eloquent of all the Evangelists could be sooner mistaken though in a matter of so great moment than himself or else he would have the Scripture to be falsified and corrupt in this place and not himself For he acknowledges that all the ancient Manuscripts which he had seen and even his own which was of great Authority and of venerable Antiquity venerandae Antiquitatis together with the Syriac Version to which he gives this Elogy that it was deservedly accounted to be of greatest authority maximae meritò authoritatis did conspire together to refer the effusion of Blood to the Cup. The Author therefore and all that separate from the Catholic Church in this Point must either at last be forced to confess here as Beza doth concerning those words of our Lord This is my Body That this saying thus exprest cannot be retained but it must prove Transubstantiation after the manner of the Papists or else that the Holy Scripture the Foundation of Christian Faith is made invalid So that it is plain from what hath been said that the Cup is here put for what is contained in the Cup and that the words so taken do signifie and operate a substantial Change not of the Cup but of the Wine in the Cup and that not into the New Testament or Covenant but into the Blood of Christ in which this New Covenant or Testament is made sealed and confirmed Besides that his Blood is said here then to be poured out and his Body then to be broken and given for us which they could not be unless they were then really in the Sacrament because the Passion wherein his Body was peirced only not broken as in the Sacrament and his Blood was shed from his Crucified Body upon the ground not only poured forth from one Vessel to another and drunk as in the Sacrament followed the Institution and first Celebration of this Sacrament DISCOURSE But that there is no necessity to understand our Saviour's words in the sense of Transubstantiation I will take the plain concession of a great number of the most learned Writers of the Church of Rome in this Controversie Bellarmin Suarez and Vasques do acknowledg Scotus the great Schoolman to have said that this Doctrin cannot be evidently proved from Scripture And Bellarmin grants this not to be improbable and Suarez and Vasques acknowledg Durandus to have said as much Ocham another famous Schoolman says expresly that the Doctrin which holds the Substance of the Bread and Wine to remain after Consecration is neither repugnant to Reason nor to Scripture Petrus ab Alliaco Cardinal of Cambrey says plainly That the Doctrin of the Substance of Bread and Wine remaining after Consecration is more easie and free from Absurdity more rational and no ways repugnant to the Authority of Scripture nay more that for the other Doctrin viz. of Transubstantiation there is no evidence in Scripture Gabriel Biel another great Schoolman and Divine of their Church freely declares that as to any thing express'd in the Canon of the Scriptures a man may believe that the substance of Bread and Wine doth remain after Consecration and therefore he resolves the belief of Transubstantiation into some other Revelation besides Scripture which he supposeth the Church had about it Cardinal Cajetan confesseth that the Gospel doth no where express that the Bread is changed into the Body of Christ that we have this from the Authority of the Church Nay he goes farther That there is nothing in the Gospel which enforceth any man to understand these words of Christ this is my Body in a proper and not a metaphorical Sense but the Church having understood them in a proper Sense they are to be so explained Which words in the Roman Edition of Cajetan are expunged by order of Pope Pius V. Cardinal Contarenus and Melchior Canus one of the best and most judicious Writers that Church ever had reckon this Doctrin among those which are not so expresly found in Scripture I will add but one more of great authority in the Church and a reputed Martyr Fisher Bishop of Rochester who ingenuously confesseth that in the words of the Institution there is not one word from whence the true Presence of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in our Mass can be proved So that we need not much contend that this Doctrin hath no certain foundation in Scripture when this is so fully and frankly acknowledged by our Adversaries themselves ANSWER The Author hath had very little Success yet in that which he calls a Discourse against Transubstantiation therefore because he would now do some Execution he is forc't to come down to his Adversaries
one should hold up a true piece of Gold which is discoloured so by Sulphur that it looks but like Silver and should be informing us that this is a piece of true Gold we should before he hath spoke his words conclude it was but Silver So it would have been prejudice in our Lord's Disciples to have concluded of the determinate nature of that which he held in his Hands when he was going to tell them what it really was viz. his Body before he had fully pronounced the Proposition saying This is my Body Which the Sacramentarians and our Author do rashly determining the thing which appears as Bread to be so in Substance upon the exhibiting the Species and saying This which notwithstanding when the Proposition is finished is in the Sacrament made and declared to be the Body of Christ This therefore being a Pronoun demonstrative it is enough that it exhibits something unto us under a certain outward appearance without signifying distinctly and clearly the whole nature of the thing for it is the propperty of the Attribute or thing that is affirmed of another to add clearness to the subject or thing of which it is affirmed by explaining the nature of the thing intended to be demonstrated in the Proposition more fully otherwise the Proposition would be ridiculous as if one should say this Bread is Bread or this my Body is my Body This therefore in the Proposition This is my Body only discovers some Real Thing which appears in such a manner as for instance the Species of Bread to the Senses which our Saviour who was Truth it self who did know the truth of all things and could alter the nature of any Created thing by his Word declares fully unto them to be his Body tho' under such an appearance so that whether the change was made before or at that very instant of time when our Lord spake the words the latter of which is the general opinion of Catholics the Proposition is strictly true in a proper Sense I shall only premise one thing more before I examin the Authors pretended proofs from Scripture because I would by no means make the breach betwixt us wider than it is which is this That Catholics acknowledge a Figure in the Sacrament no less than Protestants Thus the Bread and Wine before Consecration being distinct things and separate one from the other do resemble Christs Body and Blood separated upon the Cross and his Soul separated from his Body altho' they could not do this in their own nature and till after the first Institution they were exposed upon the Altar for such a use as might make us consider them as such resemblances since there is not so much of natural likeness as to call the Idea of the Passion into our mind We believe also that after Consecration Christs Body in the Sacrament under the Veils of the Species of Bread and Wine is a Figure Similitude or Examplar of the same Body of Christ as it suffer'd upon the Cross in like manner as his Body when newly born was a Resemblance and Exemplar and express Image of his Body at full growth But this we conclude not from those words of our Lord This is my Body which must still be understood in a proper Sense but from the nature of the thing it self after the Institution known to be made From whence we firmly believe the Body of Christ to be there it being of the nature of a Sacrament to represent and exhibit somthing more unto us than what it outwardly appears to be I now proceed to consider the Expressions which the Author produceth out of Scripture by which he would prove a Figurative Presence of Christs Body in opposition to a Real one in the Catholic Sense And this being the main Proof upon which those who have renounced the Authority of the Church do pretend to build their Faith since they allow that nothing ought to be admitted as an Article of Faith which is not clearly deduced from hence and consequently nothing ought to be condemned as contrary to the Christian Faith but what is manifestly repugnant to this From hence then it is that he should bring an evidence which is able to overthrow the Authority of so many Councils and several of them General ones as have determined this Point against him and to shew plainly that the whole true visible Church of Christ which hath for near MDCC years received the Doctrin of the Real Presence of Christs Body hath erred in so necessary a Point of Faith and been guilty of Idolatry even grosser than that of the Heathen World as the Author pretends notwithstanding the Evidence of the same Holy Scripture that the Holy Spirit shall lead it into all Truth and that the Gates of Hell shall not be able to prevail against it Let us see therefore how well he acquits himself in this vast enterprise of so great concern to the Christian World. His Argument from Scripture is this there are other expressions in Scripture which are taken figuratively therefore this must be so taken Out of the innumerable like expressions in Holy Scripture as he is pleased to term them he citeth two very different sorts The first are barely figurative such as are used in ordinary human discourse as well as Scripture without preparing of the mind of the Hearer beforehand that he may receive them Then he compares the words of our Lords Institution to a Dream or Vision of the Night that was to be interpreted which indeed hath something more of resemblance than the former expressions which he alledgeth because it being known that the things which are represented in Dreams and Visions are not real but imaginary yet since they are sometimes considered as representing real things that are to come to pass they are of the nature of Signs of Institution and so may come nearer to the Case in hand But he seems to be soon weary of these resemblances which being so different in nature one from the other are not like to agree to the same third thing the Sacrament Then he flies from Scripture to Justin Martyr's Testimony concerning the ancient form of the Passover used by the Jews Yet he knows not whether he should stick to this expression which is Sacrifical or Sacramental and so most likely to resemble the Sacramental about which he argues or the former which are not so For he begins his Periods thus Whether we consider the like expressions in Scripture as where our Saviour saith c. or whether we compare these words with the ancient form of the Passover And I am sure these are not of a like nature with the other Surely there is no Man of common Sense that can admit of such a sort of Proof as this from one Author that so fluctuates in his judgment since it hath the visible Character of Falshood in its very Front and condemns the Real Presence of Christs Body in a proper Sense which was never
Himself or by his Disciples if no more had bin meant than so as he did in the case of Parables less difficult to understand than this would have bin if it had bin by our Lord proposed as one but proceeds to deliver this profound Mystery to them in more express words using a vehement Asseveration to confirm the truth of it Verily verily I say unto you except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life and I will raise him up at the last day For my Flesh is truly meat my Blood is truly drink He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father So he that eateth me even he shall live by me This is that Bread which came down from Heaven not as your Fathers did eat Manna and are Dead He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever All which words being used by our Lord to clear the doubt and answer that Question of the Jews How can this man give us his Flesh to eat I cannot imagin how the Real Presence of Christs Body and its Manducation in the Sacrament could have bin more fully Asserted in order to the disposing of his Disciples to believe the Sense of the Reality when he should Institute his blessed Sacrament And so the Fathers interpret this place And do not say that the Manna mentioned in the 58 verse which was miraculously sent from Heaven was a Type of ordinary Bread made by the Hands of Men and set upon the Table which is of a far more Ignoble Nature and less Significant than the Manna which thus came down from Heaven but of the Real Body of Christ in the Sacrament which was the true Bread from Heaven that nourished to Immortality After our Saviour had spoke thus to them many of the Disciples themselves to whom Christ did not think fit as yet to reveal the manner of feeding upon his Body in the Blessed Sacrament thinking that he meant that his Body was to be eaten in a gross manner like the Capernaites cried out this is a hard saying who can hear it To whom as well as to the Jews who before are said to murmur at him because he said I am the Bread which came down from Heaven and that ask how this Man could give them his Flesh to eat our Lord replies doth this offend you and then clears the Doctrins to them as far as he judg'd convenient for the confirmation of such high Mysteries about which they were to exercise a strong and a lively Faith by saying thus v. 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before As if he should have said if you do not yet believe that the Son of Man came down from Heaven yet when you see him ascend thither again you will be more ready to believe that it was really God who came down took Flesh and dwelt amongst you which Solution had relation chiefly to the former of the Mysteries viz. his Incarnation but withal insinuates that such as believe not his words touching the holy Sacrament and think it impossible for him to give his Body to be eaten in so many places at once being yet on Earth would be much more Scandalized and Tempted after they saw or knew him to have Ascended into Heaven Therefore to clear the latter Mystery and Solve their doubt who thought like the Capernaites that Christ was to have cut pieces of flesh from his body and to have given them to be eaten or that thought his Body to be that of a mere Man he tells them v. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing that is the Flesh which he had told them before that they must eat altho' not in the gross manner without the Spirit profiteth nothing not but that by the Spirit quickning it it profits very much Suitable to that of St. Paul. 1 Cor. 8. 1. Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth that is Knowledge without Charity puffeth up altho' when Chariy is joyned with it to enliven it it edifies and Charity it self edifieth by Knowledge For if these words of Christ were to be taken in the Sense of the Sacramentarians they would derogate no less from his Incarnation Manhood and Death than from the Real Presence of his Body in the Sacrament in all which without doubt the flesh profiteth very much Wherefore our Lord goes on to tell them here that the words which he spake unto them were Spirit and Life therefore not to be understood in the gross carnal Sense before mentioned which some of his Disciples took them in For it is the use of the Scripture to call Mans natural Sense carnal Reasoning and resisting or not reaching to the belief of Supernatural Truths Flesh and Blood as Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood revealed not this to thee c. but the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and Life therefore not to be carnally understood But as by the Word of God the World was Created and Nature hath been since often chang'd so there is no doubt but Christ could by it change the Bread into his Body as he did daily by ordinary Natural Nutrition but here in a supernatural way Our Lord therefore said unto them that their Fathers did Eat Manna in the Wilderness which was but a Type of this Heavenly Manna in the Sacrament and yet they did Spiritually feed upon Christ the Messias for it is said 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. That they did all eat the same Spiritual Meat and did all Drink the same Spiritual Drink for they Drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ and yet they are Dead all of them a Temporal some of them an Eternal Death also and those of them which now live the Life Eternal received this Life from the Son of God who hath now given us the Antitype of that Manna which the Children of Israel did eat viz. his own Body in the Sacrament something of a far more excellent nature to feed upon which will be to our Bodies as well as to our Souls the Seed of Immortality the Instrument and Pledge of our Resurrection Ascension and Glorification Yet as our Lord said to his Disciples there are some of you which believe not so we may say still of the Sacramentarians who notwithstanding all that Christ hath said will admit of nothing but Signs and Figures of imaginary vertue whom nevertheless our Saviour hath no further instructed in any such easie Sense as this which might certainly have prevented their relapse as well as that of the Jews his Disciples and which if any such Sense had been to be admitted would most certainly have been given that they will not believe our Lord and therefore they go
Protestants and particularly the Author would have them to be must need be allow'd to be obscure and difficult because they differ so much among themselves as well as from the Catholic Church about the meaning of them and yet none of the Evangelists nor St. Paul altho ' varying in expressing the Words of Institution have inserted any words which in the least explain the Sense to be Figurative or Parabolical hence it follows That the Church hath great reason to understand them properly 2. Because now just upon our Lords Passion it was the Time for Figures and Shadows to vanish and for Truth and Reality to appear And our Lord was Instituting the Great Sacrament of Christian Religion he could not therefore speak with too much force and efficacy especially since he now spake to his Apostles in private to whom he was used at such times to speak very plainly 3. Because Christ was making his Last Will and Testament which was to be expressed in such plain and distinct Terms that there might be no just reason for his Children to contend about their Legacy And can we be so unworthy as to imagin that in this his Last and Kindest Bequest he left us no more but a Morsel of Common dry Bread to eat and a little ordinary Wine and Water to drink in remembrance of him whereas a kind and good natur'd Man will leave his most precious Jewel to his dear Friend to remember him by when he departs from him to take a long Journy and to make any considerable stay A good Father when he is to dye thinks all his best Goods and Possessions too little to leave his Children He was also delivering a Commandment to observe which that it might be rightly executed ought to be promulged in a manner very intelligible 4. Our Lord was near his Death and therefore it was a time to avoid Obscurity in Speech since he was not to continue any longer amongst them to interpret it 5. Our Saviour in the choice of these words had not only regard to the Apostles but he likewise spake them to all the Church in all succeeding Ages and knew certainly when he pronounced them how they would always construe them and yet for the confirmation of the Sense of the Reality did never suffer it to be call'd in question so much as privately for almost a Thousand Years when also the whole Body of his Pastors who were endu'd with extraordinary Light and Assistance of his Holy Spirit to enable them to interpret aright the Divine Misteries had already just before in Three Councils agreed upon this Sense as that which had been constantly receiv'd in the Church ever since our Saviours Time and which was more explicitly declared against that one Dissenter who sometime after appear'd against it but was ashamed of his Opinion and recanted Lastly if we consider as hath been now fully prov'd That all the places of Holy Scripture as also all other Forms of Human Discourse which are alledged by our Adversaries as like to this of our Lords Institution are wholly different from it shewing them the quite contrary to what they pretend them for and that our Saviour did neither before at or after the Institution any ways prepare or dispose his Disciples to understand these words in a Figurative Sence it must needs be very evident to any Man that will impartially regard things that because Christ ever spake reasonably and in a manner conformable to good Sense and his Power infinitely exceeds the capacity of our Minds therefore there is no Reason to understand those words of our Saviours THIS IS MY BODY and THIS IS MY BLOOD in a Metaphorical Sense as the Author and the Sacramentarins do but an evident necessity to believe them in that proper Sense which necessarily inferreth Transubstantiation as the Catholic Church doth since Scripture interpreted by the Rules of Human Discourse as also the Tradition and Authority of this Church oblige us so to do The latter of which is to be the Subject of the Second Part of the Answer to the Discourse against Transubstantiation The Contents of the First Part of the Answer to the Discourse against Transubstantiation 1. IT is shew'd that our Adversary doth not rightly state the Point Page 1 2. What is meant by Transubstantiation 4 3. The Argument from Sense shew'd to be Senseless ibid. 4. The Catholic Faith is ridicul'd by the Adversary 7 5. The Real Presence and Transubstantiation depends on Gods Veracity 9 6. No Transubstantiation an Article of Faith with our Adversaries and establish'd with Penalties 10 7. The Method of the ensuing Discourse 11 8. The Necessity of understanding our Lords words in the Sense of the Real Presence or Transubstantiation 13 9. The Sense of the Schoolmen corrupted and their Problematical Discourse mistaken for their Conclusion by the Adversary 16 10. The Disparity between the Figurative Expressions in Holy Scripture and the words of Institution This is my Body shews that the Latter are to be taken properly 25 c. 11. Principles upon which the ensuing Discourse is grounded ibid. 12. How Catholics interpret the words of Institution and how Protestants 26 13. In what Sense Catholics allow a Figure in the Sacrament 28 14. Rules to judg of Metaphorical Expressions by 31 2. 15. The Application of the forgoing Rules by which it appears that those merely Metaphorical Expressions of our Saviors being a Door a Vine c. are not at all like to the Form of Consecration This is my Body 33 c. 16. A Metaphor conveys no Spiritual Vertue Page 36 17. The Exposition of Pharaoh's Dream doth not resemble the Sacred words of Consecration This is my Body ibid. 18. Distinctions and Rules for the following Discourse of the Nature of Signs ibid. 19. Application of the foregoing Rules and Distinctions 37 20. The Analogy which the words of Institution This is my Body might have to the Paschal Form in Scripture or to those Phrases cited from Esdras or any of the Rabins doth not prove that Christs words here are taken Figuratively and not in a proper Sense 40 21. A Deeds being call'd a Conveyance doth not prove that the words This is my Body are not to be taken properly 46 22. Texts of Scripture examined and prov'd not at all to favour the Sense of the Author of the Discourse against Transsubstantiation 47 23. Christ's Body being broken and his Bloud being poured out for the Remission of Sins before he was Crucified proves the Sense of the Reality or Transubstantiation 52. 24. The 6th Chapter of S. John's Gospel interpreted as relating to the Blessed Sacrament 54 c. 25. The words Do this in Remembrance of me explain'd 59. 26. The Real Vertue of Christs Body in the Sacrament cannot be prov'd from Scripture unless the Real Presence of his Body it self be admitted 60 27. Further Reasons from Scripture for the proper Sense of the words of Institution which necessarily