Doctors to whom we appeal then judged concerning this our cause when no body could say they had favor or ill will for either party They had neither friendship nor enmity with you or us We did not as yet appeal with you to them as Judges and our cause was decided by them Neither you nor we were known to them and we recite their sentence given for us against you We did not yet contest with you and they pronouncing sentences for us we have overcome you Or will my Calvinist have the impudence to accuse as some do thâ—se grave Doctors of blindness A multitude of blind men forsooth avails nothing to find out the Truth and these were the errors and mistakes of those learned Prelates What an Age are we fal'n into Truth must be called error and error truth light darkness and darkness light S. Augustin S. Ambrose S. Crysostom S. Hierom are blind but Calvin and Stillingfleet see These Doctors I have called a Council of were persons of such Learning and Sanctity that if a Synod of Bishops were gathered out of the whole world it would be much if so many and such Doctors could be found to sit in it Neither indeed were these all at one time but God Almighty as pleases him and as he judges to be expedient scatters a few more excellent and faithful dispensers of his mysteries in several Ages and distances of places By such Planters Waterers Builders Pastors nursing Fathers after the Apostles the holy Church has encreased Now what an imprudence and what an impudence must it be for any to presume to accuse of the horrible crime of Idolatry so many holy egregious and memorable Doctors of the Catholick Verity and moreover together with them the whole Church of Christ to which divine Family they faithfully Ministring spiritual Food flourished with great glory in our Lord. Nay further they who dare to oppose the manifest Sentiment not of so many Platonical Aristotelieal or Zenonical Doctors but of so many Saints and illustrious Prelates in the Church of God and these some of them singularly endowed with human litterature and all of them eminently learned in the Sacred Letters have reason not so much to fear them as him who made them profitable Vessels to himself These Judges by how much the more desirable they ought to be unto thee if thou didst hold the Catholick Faith by so much thou hast more reason to fear them because thou opposest the Catholick Faith which they ministred to little and great and manifestly and stoutly defended against its Enemies yea against you then not as yet born For not only when they lived did they by their words but also by their writings which they left to Posterity did they strenuously defend the Catholick Faith that they might break in pieces your Arguments Hitherto S. Augustin l. 1. et 2. Contra Julianum I thought fit to adjoyn this Reflexion of S. Augustin though superabundant to the force of my Argument it being sufficient for my purpose to prove that the doctrin of the Real presence was generally believed in the Primitive Centuries of Christianity and so much evidently follows from the Authorities above cited For though some may be so self-conceited as to confess that S. Ambrose S. Crysostom and the rest of the holy Fathers Greek and Latin believed the doctrin of the Real presence but they with humble submission deemed it to be an Idolatrous and damnable doctrin yet few I think but have so much regard for thâ—se Primitive Doctors as to allow them so much iudgement as to know what was the belief of their several Churches in their daies and so much fidelity as to write the Truth as to this particular which is sufficient for the purport of my discourse Unless you can think that these holy Fathers were of one Faith and their several Flocks who reverenced them as Saints of another An Answer to an Objection But you will say if there be such a miraculous change wrought in the bread and wine in the holy Eucharist why does it not appear to our senses as well as other miraculous works of our Lord Jesus did When he turn'd water into wine it appeared such to the sight and tast of the Guests at the Marriage-Feast He did not barely tell them the water was turn'd into wine and exact their belief of his word contrary to the evidence of all their senses but convinced them that it was so by their very senses Why then in our present case if he turn wine into his blood does it not appear to our fight to be blood But barely to tell us that it is his blood and yet to let it tast and appear as it did how is this credible How is it not contrary to one but to all the Miracles that ever he wrought And this Argument is further strengthned for that it would hence follow we might call in question the whole mystery of Christianity For we therefore believing in our Lord Jesus as one indeed sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth because of his Miracles and we having no assurance of his Miracles but from our senses if our senses may be mistaken how can we tell but those who were eye-witnesses of his wonders were illuded and water for example was not turned by him into wine but only seemed wine to the tast and sight of those which were present and indeed remained water as before For why may not water remain water and yet seem to my tast wine as well as wine be changed into blood and yet seem to my tast and sight to remain wine For Answer to this Objection we must distinguish two sorts of Miracles with the ends for which they are wrought Some Miracles are wrought by Almighty God to draw the world to the Christian Faith and these must necessarily be the object of our senses else it could not reasonably be expected they should work their intended effect in them for whose sakes they are wrought For example If any one will by Miracle prove he is sent from God by raising a dead man to life or by turning water into wine he must make it evident to my senses that the man who was dead is alive and the water now wine and not barely tell me so Else he will be derided as an Impostor and impudent Lyer instead of being admired and received as a Messenger from Heaven and Oracle of Truth There are other Miracles which are wrought by the Almighty not as a motive to induce us to receive the true Faith but to sanctifie us when we have received it or for the necessity of working the salvation of the world Such are the Miracles of the Incarnation of the Son of God and all the spiritual effects wrought in the souls of Christians by any of the Sacraments Now these miraculous effects are not the object of our senses nor is there any reason they should be For the Church of Christ does not urge these to
rather wonder at their stupidity and fond credulity who can believe any such thing But to get a right strong and well grounded Faith concerning this high mystery what must we do First Reflect we are Christians and as such must necessarily believe very many strange things unless we will renounce Christianity For example we must believe that there are three distinct Persons and every one of these is God and yet there are not three Gods but only one God We must also believe this one God is infinitly merciful and yet he will permit millions of souls to lament and howl amidst scorching Flames for ever though with a word he could ease them of all their pains Moreover we must believe that 1600. years ago one of the three divine Persons was incarnat and became a true mortal man flesh and blood as we are and after 33. years which he lived upon our Earth he was nailed to a Cross Hands and Feet till he died and after three daies came to life again and after 40. days ascended into Heaven where he remains to this day These would seem strange things to believe to one that should never have heard them before and yet stranger to one that from his Childhood should have been taught to laugh at such stories as mere Fables and idle fictions of cheating Priests who knew them well enough to be such but for their own gain and interest seem'd to believe them and with a great deal of Confidence taught them for infallible Truths to the credulous multitude Which being so Reflect 2d y. No Christian must bogle at any thing as to the belief of it merely for the strangeness of it and seeming unlikeliness to his senses or reason But must consider what grounds he has to judge the strange mystery he is required to believe was taught his Fore-fathers by our B. Saviour and his Apostles and if he find he has good grounds for this he must immediately submit his understanding and believe it 3dly Let us reflect upon the state of our own Country as it is at present and as our Annals represent it to have been ever since our first Receiving of the Christian Faith At present we have a considerable number of Families who believe Transubstantiation and have believed it from their Fore-fathers time out of mind and they say ever since the first planting of the Christian Faith amongst us We have also far greater multitudes who do not believe it but yet so as there 's scarce one who is fifty years old whose great Grand-father did not believe it but when his great Grand-father or his great Grand-fathers Ancesters began to believe it we are able to give no acconnt Moreover two hundred years ago in all the several Shires or Provinces of England we all universally Bishops Priests and People Rich and Poor Learned and Unlearned believed it And this not as a new Doctrin found out by themselves by reading the holy Scriptures No. They were Enemies to all Novelties and professed they must hold fast what had been taught by their Fore-elders and interpret Scripture in the sense their Fore-elders had done Now how is it possible they should come to believe such a strange Doctrin unless it had been taught them from their Fore-fathers and the first Preachers of Christianity in our Nation Especially they not reading the holy Scriptures as we do now nor having such store of Bibles that they might perhaps by their private reading have come to believe this hard and high mystery contrary to what had been taught them by their Fore-elders How came they to learn it then Did they some strange morning or other all awake of a different belief from what they had been of the Evening before Or did it come into some Schollars head by studying the holy Scriptures reading for example those words This is my body so often repeated in the Evangelists S. Paul and he hereupon was convinced they had all been in an Error for so many years and by Preaching and Disputing perswaded others But how comes it to pass then we having had Historians that have mentioned far less Matters yet say not a word of any such thing Or did the Britons before S. Austin the Monk believe no such thing How came they then not to clash about it or if they did how comes it to pass other differences are recorded and this is omitted Besides if S. Austin taught it our Ancesters he confirm'd the Religion he taught by miracles as all our Stories testifie And also he lived within the first 600 years to which Dr. N. N. in one of his Sermons appeals Nor did that blessed man pretend to teach us a new Religion neither newly found out at Rome but what was alwaies believed ever since S. Peter 4. Let us consider why we are Christians and we shall find if we be so rationally and groundedly and not merely because we were so brought up from our Childhood I say we shall find our Faith to be grounded upon such principles as if we be true to them they will force us as strongly to believe Transubstantiation as the Incarnation the Real presence as the Deity of our Saviour For example I believe the man Jesus Christ who lived 1600. years ago was also God And why Because he said he was so and proved by evident miracles that he was sent to teach the World Truth and nothing but Truth And why all this Because it could not stand with the providence of God to suffer a Deceiver to work such miracles as he wrought teaching withal and practising such sanctity as he did For then the most sincere desirers to know the Truth would be most subject to miss of it But how do I know Jesus Christ wrought such miracles Because I find them Recorded in certain Books which several Nations all over the World have immemorially looked upon as faithful true stories ever since the time the miracles are said to have been wrought Now 't is not possible but the men then alive must needs certainly know whether he did work such strange miracles or no. And if they had known no such thing was wrought by him but that these things were at first feigned by some of his Friends and afterwards committed to writing by them they could never contrary to the evidence of their own knovvledge have told unanimously such notorious Lyes to their Posterity and have made them believe them as they did Nor could have recommended the Books vvherein they vvere Recorded to their Children and have made them reverence them as unquestionable and infallibly certain Histories as they did But hovv do I knovv that Jesus Christ taught that he vvas God vvhy certainly the Apostles understood him vvhat he said concerning himself vvhether he vvere only a holy man like to their great Moyses or else vvere true and substantially God and consequently to be Worshipped by them as such And no doubt but they taught their first Converts vvhat they had learnt
and yet we can give no assured credit to History or immemorial testimonies of whole Countrys Moreover we finding by the experience of the Age we live in that though fabulous stories be told and printed too yet we easily distingnish betwixt them and true Histories of the present times For that true Histories gain an universal credit amongst persons of the best understanding and the Historigraphers that write them are commended to Posterity as faithful witnesses of Truth whereas fables and fictions every one of ordinary capacity looks upon them as such nor do we give any other Recommendation of them to Posterity then as of fabulons Romances This we experiencing in the present Age persons of humility and solid judgment deem the like to have happen'd in the daies of their Fore-fathers and consequently give another kind of credit to Stories how strange so ever recounted by a S. Bernard a venerable Bede or a S. Bonaventure then they do to the fictions of a Don Quixot a Guy of Warwick c. And he that will consult what has happen'd in the World will find mens eyes and other senses to have been as often mistaken as he will find whole Towns and Countries to have confidently told a Lye to their Posterity which they evidently knew to be a Lye And this the Atheists of our days would do well to reflect on when they so senselesly call in question the History of Moyses or Book of Exodus concerning the wonders wrought by Almighty God in Aegypt And Dr. N. N. too must one day give a sad account for all his Drollery as merry as he makes himself with the History of Lorretto and other stories registred by persons of noted sanctity and integrity And would he reflect a little on the difficulty of making whole Countrys believe a Lye contrary to the evidence of their senses he would find it a greater miracle that the whole Territory of Lorretto should so immemorially believe so great a Lye as he would make his Reader think they do then the wonder it self he sacrilegiously scoffs at To wit the Translation of the House in which our B. Lord was conceived by his Holy Mother at Nazareth out of the Holy Land first into Dalmatia and then afterwards into Italy Let the Dr. cause a house to be built in a Night in S. James's Park and then tell the Citizens of London it was brought thither by Angels out of a forreign Country and see if he can make them so universally to believe it as they shall no body contradicting make their Posterity believe as much and I perswade my self he may with the same ease bring such a House from Geneva or New-England in a Night as make the numerous multitude believe such a notorious Lye O England England dear Native Soyl at length open thine Eyes and acknowledge the illimited goodness of the divine Majesty to be such that not contenting himself with giving us prodigies of sanctity for the first Planters of Christianity and with confirming their sublime and holy doctrins with evident signs and wonders he is ever now and then awakening the drowsie world with a S. Dominick a S. Francis or a S. Xauerius and ceases not by undeniable miracles to confirm the languishing Faith of tepid Christians The sight of present miracles strangely strengthens our Faith of wonders past and done long since And believe it 't is a next disposition to Antichristianism and Atheism freely to give our selves the liberty to scoff at all miracles though attested by never so grave Authors except such as are recorded in the four Gospels and to laugh at all lives of Christian Saints as ridiculous but those of the twelve Apostles though to an impartial considerer one Egg does not more resemble another then do the persons we so freely deride express the first followers of our dear Redeemer in their holy and divine Conversations 4. Consider the force of S. Austins Argument to prove the truth of Christianity The world has actually submitted to Christianity as to a Religion taught from Heaven From whence the Saint argues thus The world believed the high mysterious doctrins of Christianity either upon miracles wrought by the first teachers of them or without miracles If upon miracles then you who doubt have reason also to believe them Or if the world submitted their Faith to believe such strange mysteries without any miracles this is the greatest miracle of all that such vast multitudes and innumerable of these of ripe judgement and quick understanding should believe such strange things upon the Authority of the Proposer without a miracle Apply this to our present mystery Two hundred years ago the whole Christian world believed the H. Eucharist to be our B. Saviours body and adored it as such Hereupon I argue These vast multitudes and many of them of great learning and judgement began to believe this strange mystery either for miracles wrought by the first Teachers of it or without miracles If upon miracles then you ought to believe it also If without miracles this is the greatest miracle of all that such vast multitudes and these innumerable of them well cultivated with learning besides their natural ripeness of judgment and sharpness of wit should believe so strange a mystery without any miracles wrought by those who first demanded their belief of it Finally consider with your self how many millions there are who believe this mystery and would sooner part with their life then their Faith of it and these if you have the least grain of humility such as you have reason to think them of as good Learning Wit and Judgment as your self Add as good Christians as your self for either piety to God or Charity to their indigent Neighbor or mortification to themselves Imagin you saw all these as holy and as wise as your self in the several Christian Countrys of the whole world all upon their knees adoring a seeming Wafer-Cake as their Creator and God Bishops Priests Doctors of Divinity in vast numbers Kings and Princes Men and Women of all degrees and condition And can you now think all these people to be in their wits and not have some strong Reasons and Arguments which induce them to such a Faith and such a practice Had you and I been in the Stable of Bethlehem in the Night of our Lord's Nativity and S. Joseph should have told us that the little Infant we saw there sucking his Mothers Breast was the Maker of Heaven and Earth we should no doubt have found great difficulty to believe him But should we have staied there a while and have seen the Shepherds come in and fall down upon their knees before him by the admonition as they pretended of an Angel that had appeared to them as they were keeping watch over their Flocks this doubtless would a little have enclined us to think that at least there was something extraordinary in the new born Babe But had we staied till the comeing of the three Kings
perswade Unbelievers to acknowledge the true Faith but only professes that by these her members are sanctified For example we say by Baptism as an outward and visible sign is wrought an invisible grace in the soul of the person Baptized Though view the Child as much as you please you can by none of your senses perceive any mutation to be wrought In like manner the Church professes to believe the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God that our Lord Jesus though to outward appearance a mere man was also true God and yet by no sense was the Hypostatical Union of his soul and body to the Second person of the blessed Trinity discernable This was no doubt a great Miracle yea the miracle of miracles wrought amongst us but the end of its working being not by it as a motive to draw the world to Christianity but to constitute a fit person for the working of the salvation of the world it was not necessary it should be the object of our senses The same Lord and Saviour telling us that he was God though we could discern no Characters of Divinity in him by any of our senses he saying that he was God proving by other Miracles to our senses that he was sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth this was sufficient to secure our belief of his Deity In like manner in the mystery of the holy Eucharist this miraculous change being not wrought to allure Strangers to the Christian Faith but to sanctifie Believers and to work all those spiritual effects in them above-mentioned by being received by them and offered up in their presence for them c. it was not requisite this change should be the object of our senses Nay it was necessary it should not be the object of our senses For it being wrought to the intent we should eat and drink our dear Lord his body and blood it was necessary only the substance of bread and wine should be turned into the substance of our Lords flesh and blood the accidents of bread and wine remaining for that otherwise we should have a horror to eat raw flesh and drink true appearing blood As to the confirmation of the Argument that hence it would follow we cannot trust our senses and consequently not be certain of any miracle wrought by our Saviour To this I Answer We may alwaies trust our senses about their own objects and in due circumstances and when we have not positive grounds to think either God Almighty by himself or by an Angel or permissively by a Devil represents things otherwise then they are The three Children in the fiery Furnace might really think themselves in the midst of scorching Flames though they felt them not because they had reason to surmise God Almighty wrought a miracle out of those circumstances they had no reason to believe any thing to be ordinary fire which should not burn as fire Nor must they for this for ever after be in doubt whether they were not environed with Flames of fire or no. Nor must Abram because once in a particular circumstance he mistook three Angels for three men therefore never after believe his eyes whether he saw a man or no unless he first pinched him by the arm and felt that he had flesh and blood as himself Nor must one who in the presence of a Conjurer had taken pibble stones for grapes for ever after be doubtful whether he saw grapes or no till he tasted them Nor does it follow S. Mary Magdalen could not be certain she ever saw our B. Saviour because once her senses were mistaken concerning him taking him for the Gardener And in our present case our B. Saviour telling us that the Holy Eucharist is his body we have all reason to think that by miracle he makes it to be so whatsoever it seems to our senses Nor do Catholicks therefore out of such a circumstance doubt of all the bread they see whether it be not their Lords body or no Though I must tell you even here your senses are not mistaken for they do perceive what they seem to perceive that is the Accidents of bread and wine which remain and affect them in the same manner as when the substance under them was the substance of bread and wine but now is the substance of our Lords body and blood Substances are not discernable by any sense only we conclude by a Physical certitude such a substance is under such a complex of Accidents when we have nor positive grounds that God Almighty works a miracle as here we have he saying expresly of this object before us 'T is his body and 't is his blood But if there be so much to be said for this great mystery how comes it to pass so many have so great difficulty to believe it It is not because the mystery is not highly credible but it is partly from Nature and partly from Education and partly from want of a serious and frequent consideration of those Arguments which strongly evince the credibility of it and partly for want of strange desires of the happiness of the other life and of a heart void of inordinate affections to the things of this life Pleasures Riches and Honors 'T is partly from Nature I say For 't is not more difficult to our senses to practice Sobriety Temperance Chastity and Fasting then it is to our understanding to assent to Truths which seem to shock our reason and senses though proposed by never so great Authority Should you have seen our B. Saviour sucking his Mothers Breast in the Stable of Bethlehem whosoever should have told you the little Infant there was God Almighty the maker of Heaven and Earth Nature would have found a great difficulty to believe so strange an assertion and no less then it does now to believe that a little Wafer in the hands of a Priest is the same Christ both God and man veiled under the appearance of the common accidents of bread But had it been moreover from your infancy continually noysed in your ears by such as you reverenced for their learning and skill in divine matters that it was impossible for God to become man this would strangely have encreased your difficulty to believe a little Infant in nothing different as to outward appearance from other Children should be God But if to all this you should add never or very seldom and slightly to consider the positive Arguments for the belief of that mystery of the Incarnation but were ever still poring upon the difficulty and unlikeliness and seeming impossibility of any such thing 't is not possible you should ever come to the belief of it though the mystery be never so true in it self nor the Arguments to prove it never so evident and cogent But this is the case of us generally in England as to the mystery of the B. Sacrament and therefore no vvonder if generally it be not believed by us but we