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A36765 An historical treatise, written by an author of the communion of the Church of Rome, touching transubstantiation wherein is made appear, that according to the principles of that church, this doctrine cannot be an article of faith.; Traitté d'un autheur de la communion romaine touchant la transsubstantiation. English Dufour de Longuerue, Louis, 1652-1733.; Wake, William, 1657-1737. 1687 (1687) Wing D2457; ESTC R5606 67,980 82

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the Bald. Now this Author did not believe Transubstantiation because he saith For as to the substance of those Creatures they are after Consecration what they were before they were before Bread and Wine and it is plainly seen that after Consecration these created substances do remain in the very same species And a little after he saith This spiritual flesh which spiritually feeds Believers is made of grains of Wheat by the hands of the Baker such as it appears to our sight but it hath neither Bones nor sinews nor no distinction of parts nor is it enliven'd with a Soul or reasonable substance To conclude it is unable to move of it self and if it gives life it is the effect of a Spiritual virtue of an invisible and a Divine Virtue and Efficacy A little after he saith again As the Water represents the People in the Sacrament if it were true that the Bread consecrated by Ministers was corporally changed into the Body of Jesus Christ it must also necessarily follow that the Water which is mingled with it were changed into the Blood of the faithful people for where there is but one Sanctification there ought to be but one Operation and the Mystery should be equal where the Reason of the Mystery is the same It is evident there is no corporal change in the Water and by consequence there is no corporal change to be expected in the wine All that is said of the Body of the people represented by water is understood spiritually it is then a necessary consequence that what is said of the Blood of Jesus Christ represented by the wine must be understood spiritually Again The things which differ amongst themselves are not one and the same thing The Body of Jesus Christ which was dead and rose again and become immortal doth dye no more Death has no more dominion over it it is Eternal and can no more suffer but that which is celebrated in the Church is temporal and not eternal and it is corruptible and not incorruptible And again it must then be said that the body of Jesus Christ such as it is made in the Church was incorruptible and eternal Nevertheless it cannot be denied that what is so cut into morsels to be eat changed and corrupted and that being eat with the teeth it goes into the Body Again Now 't is true that the figure and the reallity are things distinct therefore the body and blood which are celebrated in the Church are different from the flesh and blood of the Body of Jesus Christ which it is well known is glorious since his Resurrection therefore the body that we celebrate is a pledg and figure These words of Ratramne or Bertram are so clear that it is wonder'd the Author of the Perpetuity should say in the first Treatise p. 3. that Bertram is an obscure Author and not evidently favourable to Calvinists but that the Catholicks may explain him in a good sense I cannot tell what to call this Confidence John Erigen a Scotch man whom the Emperor Charles the Bald commanded to write touching the Body and Blood of the Lord as he had done also to Ratramne which appears by Borrenger's Letter to Richard publish'd by Dom Luke D' Achery in the 2d Tome of his Spicileg was of an Opinion contrary to Paschasius as is acknowledged by Lanfrank and Berenger in his Epistle to the same Lanfrank and Hincmar saith of John Erigen that he taught That the Sacrament of the Altar was not the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ but only the Remembrance both of the one and the other And Berenger writing to Lanfrank saith to him If you hold John for a Heretick whose Judgment we have been inform'd of touching the Sacrament you must also hold for Hereticks Ambrose Chrysostom Austin not to mention many more Nevertheless William of Malmsbury Roger de Hoveden and Matthew of Westminster speak of John Scot as of the greatest Man of his time and Molanus Professor in Divinity at the University of Lovain in his Appendix to the Martyrology of Ussuart at the Letter J has left these Words engraven John Scot Martyr translated Dionysius ' s Ecclesiastical Hierarchy after which by Authority of the Popes he was put into the number of the Martyrs of Jesus Christ. To conclude the Roman Martyrology which we have in our Library Printed at Antwerp Anno 1586. by order of Gregory the 13th as is said in the Title of the Book Martyrologium Romanum Jussii Gregorii 13 editum at the 4 of the Ides of November makes mention of John Scot It 's true the Author of the 1st Dissertation upon John Scot which the Author of the Perpetuity chose having placed the said Dissertation at the end of his 2d Treatise to which he often refers his Readers has made in the same Dissertation a Chapter which bears the Title that John Scot was not put into the Catalogue of Martyrs by the sacred Authority of Popes and that his Name is not to be sound in any Edition of the Roman Martyrology But it is also certain that the same Author who hath also publish'd the belief of the Greek Church touching Transubstantiation has inserted in the end of his Book a Treatise Entituled A Refutation of the Answer of a Minister of Charenton to the Dissertation which is in the end of Monsieur Arnauds Book concerning the Employments the Martyrdom and the Writings of John Scot or Erigen and the last Chapter of this Refutation hath this Title A sincere Declaration of the Author touching some things he had said in his Dissertation the which he since confesses were not true And in Numb 6. of this Chapter the Author saith in these Terms in Art. 7. p. 25. he speaks of the 7th Art. of the first Dissertation upon John Scot which is at the end of Mr. Arnauds Perpetuity it is said that 't is false that there was a Martyrology Printed at Antwerp by command of Gregory the 13th in the Year 1586. 2dly That there is not to be found in any Roman Martyrology Printed at Antwerp or any where else the Commemoration of John Scot on the 4th of the Ides of November It would be superfluous here to relate the Reasons that they have had so positively to deny these matters of Fact. It is sufficient to observe First That there is a Roman Martyrology set forth by Order of Gregory the 13th and Printed by Platin at Antwerp in the Year 1586. 2dly That there is seen in this Martyrology the Commemoration of John Scot on the 4th of the Ides of November in these words Eodem Die Sancti Joannis Scoti qui Grafiis puerorum confessus Martyrii Coronam adeptus est This Author is of good reputation and doubtless was not ignorant of what St. Austin saith in some of his Works That to Lye in a matter of Religion is meer Blasphemy Nevertheless we may observe before proceeding any farther
body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist as Bellarmin saith de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis in Paschasio Ratberto And Father Sirmond saith he is the first that hath explain'd the sense of the Church touching this Mystery so that saith he he hath opened the way to others In vitae Ratberti praefixa ejus operibus Therefore it is nothing strange that Paschasius had enemies and that he was accused for departing from the common Faith and to have spread abroad Visions of a young Man. For he saith to Frudegard You have saith he at the end of this Work the Authorities of Catholick Fathers succinctly marked by which you may perceive that 't was not through rashness that formerly when I was young I believed these things but by Divine authority He also endeavours to clear himself from this charge in alledging passages as of Saint Austins the which nevertheless are not to be found in him as these words Receive in the Bread what hung on the Cross receive in the Cup what issued out of the side of Jesus Christ. Which is not to be found in St. Austin Rabanus Archbishop of Mayance in the year 847 stiled by Baronius in the year 843. N. 31. the bright Star of Germany Fulgens Germaniae Sidus saith in his institution of Clerks Lib. 1. cap. 31. Our Saviour liked better that believers should receive with their mouth the Sacarments of his Body and Blood and that they should be turned into their nourishment to the end that by the visible work the invisible effect should be shewn For as the material food doth materially nourish the Body and support it so also the Word of God doth nourish the Soul inwardly and doth strengthen it And in the same place The Sacrament is one thing and the virtue of the Sacrament is another The Sacrament is turned into the nourishment of the Body but by the virtue of the Sacrament one acquires everlasting life As the Sacrament therefore is turn'd into our selves when we do eat and drink it so also we are converted into the Body of Jesus Christ when we live with Piety and Obedience The same Doctor on St. Matthew Chap. 26. saith with Venerable Beda that Jesus Christ hath substituted instead of the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. That the Creator of the World and the Redeemer of Mankind making of the very fruits of the Earth that is to say of Bread and Wine a fit Mystery turn'd it into the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that unleavened Bread and Wine mixt with water must be sanctified to be the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Afterwards he gives the reason wherefore our Saviour chose Bread and Wine to make them Sacraments of his Flesh and Blood and saith that 't is because Melchisedeck offer'd Bread and Wine and that Jesus Christ being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck he was to imitate his Oblation And shewing the Reason why the Sacrament takes the name of the Body and Blood of the Lord he saith with Isidore Archbishop of Sevil 'T is because Bread strengthens the Body it is conveniently called the Body of Jesus Christ and because Wine augments Blood in the Flesh and Veins for this reason it is compar'd to the Blood. Now both these things are visible nevertheless being sanctifi'd by the Holy Ghost they pass into the Sacrament of the Divine Body A Sacrament which in the 33. Chap. he calls the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ in opposition to his Natural Body from which he distinguishes it and draws a resemblance from the Mystical Body to the proper Body of Jesus Christ. The holy Vessels saith he are set on the Altar viz. the Cup and Patten which in some sort are the figure of the Grave of Jesus Christ for as at that time the Body of Jesus Christ was laid in the Sepulcher having been embalm'd by godly People so also at present the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ as it were imbalm'd with holy Prayers is kept in the holy Vessels to be administred to Believers by the hands of the Ministers The same Doctor in his Penitential or Letter to Herribald Bishop of Auxerre which Monsieur Baluze got printed at the end of his Regino at Paris in 1671 saith Chap. 33. As to what you demand of me whether the Sacrament after it is eat and consum'd and cast into the draft after the manner of all other meats does return to the former nature it had before 't was consecrated at the Altar to such a needless question may be reply'd The Lord himself said in the Gospel that what enters into the Body goes into the Belly and is cast into the draft As for the Sacrament of the Body and Blood it is made of corporeal and visible things but it produceth an invisible sanctification as well to the Body as to the Soul. What reason is there that that which is digested in the Stomack and is cast out into the draft should return to its former state there being never any that affirmed that such a thing was done For of late some persons not having a right Judgment of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ have said that the same Body and the same Blood of the Lord which was Born of the Virgin Mary and in which the Lord suffered on the Cross and rose again from the Dead is the same which is taken at the Altar against which Error we have as much as was necessary written to the Abbot Egilon explaining what ought truly to be believed of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist Amalarius esteemed a very Learned man in the Manuscripts cited by Dom Luke D'achery a Learned Benedictin in his Preface to the Seventh Tome of his Spicilegium was sent by the Emperor Charles le Debonnair to Pope Gregory to find out Antiphonaries Amalar. in Prolog Antiphon and who by express command of the same Emperor was chosen in a Council held at Aix la Chappel Auno 816. to make Rules for Prebends as is testified by Ademar a Monk of Angoulism in his Chronicle on the year 816 saith in his Treatise of Church-Offices Lib. 3. cap. 25. That the Sacrament is to us instead of Jesus Christ. The Priest saith he bows and recommends to God the Father that which was offered in the room of Jesus Christ. In the 26th chap. he saith The Oblation and the Cup do signifie the Body of the Lord when Jesus Christ said This is the Cup of my Blood he sanctified his Blood which Blood was in the Body as the Wine is in the Chalice In the third Book chap. 25. he calls the Eucharist the Sacrament of Bread and Wine and saith that Jesus Christ hath in this Bread recommended his Body and in the Cup his Blood. The same Amalarius having been consulted by Rangart Bishop of Noyon how he understood those words of Institution of the Eucharist
had created from the beginning of the World which he creates every year by Propagation and Reparation which he sanctifies which he sills with Grace and Heavenly Benediction the which himself expounds to be Bread and Wine See here Nine or Ten Authors Contemporaries with Paschasius which are formally contrary to his Doctrine besides those which Paschasius himself speaks of in general in his own Writings To conclude the Ninth Century there might be added the manner that Charles the Bald and the Count of Barcelona signed the Peace which was done with the Blood of the Eucharist as is reported by Monsieur Baluze in his Notes on Agabard out of Odo Aribert in the year 844. It was in the same manner that Pope Theodore in the Seventh Century signed the Condemnation of Pirrbus the Monotholite as appears by Baronius on the year 648. § 15. That the Fathers of the TENTH CENTURY did not believe Transubstantiation ALferick Archbishop of Canterbury about the year 940. in one of his Sermons to be seen in the Fourth Book of Bedes Ecclesiastical History cap. 24. which we have Copied in the Library of St. Victor saith The Eucharist is not the Body of Jesus Christ corporally but spiritually not the Body in which he suffered but the Body of which he spake when consecrating the Bread and Wine he said This is my Body this is my Blood he adds the Bread is his Body just as the Manna and the Wine his Blood as the Water in the Desart was There is another Sermon cited by some under the name of Wolfin Bishop of Salisbury others say 't is of Alfric wherein the Author uses near the same Language This Sacrifice saith he is not the Body of Jesus Christ wherein he suffered for us nor his Blood which he shed but it is spiritually made his Body and Blood as the Manna that fell from Heaven and the Water that sprang out of the Rock Besides these two Testimonies which shew what was believed of the Sacrament in England there is a Sermon seen which was read every year to the People at Easter to keep in their minds the Idea of the Ancient Faith It is almost wholly taken out of Ratramne There is great difference saith this Homily betwixt the Body wherein Jesus Christ suffered and the Body which is consecrated for the Eucharist for the Body wherein Jesus Christ suffered was born of the Virgin Mary and was provided with Blood Bones Nerves and Skin with bodily Members and a reasonable Soul but his spiritual Body which we call Eucharist is compos'd of several Grains of Wheat without Blood without Bones Nerves and without a Soul. The Body of Christ which suffer'd Death and rose again shall never dye more it is Eternal and Immortal but the Eucharist is temporal and not eternal it is corruptible and divided into sundry parcels ground by the Teeth and goes along with the other Excrements This Sacrament is a pledg and figure the Body of Jesus Christ is the Truth it self we have this pledg Sacramentally until we attain to the Truth and then the pledg shall be fulfill'd And a little lower If we consider the Eucharist after a corporal manner we see 't is a changeable and corruptible Creature but if we consider the spiritual Virtue that is in it we easily see that Life abides in it and that it gives Immortality to those that receive it with Faith. There is great difference betwixt the invisible Virtue of this Holy Sacrament and the visible Form of its proper Nature By Nature it is corruptible Bread and corruptible Wine but by the Virtue of the Word of God it is truly his Body and Blood yet not corporally but spiritually A little below he explains this change in saying Jesus Christ by an invisible Virtue did change the Bread and Wine into his Body and Blood but 't was after the same manner as he heretofore changed Manna and the Water that came out of the Rock into the same Body and Blood. Fulcuin Abbot of the Monastry of Lobes in the County of Liege who departed this Life in the year 990. speaking of the Eucharistical Table saith That 't is the Table on which is consumed the Sacred Body of our Lord which not being to be said of the proper Body cannot be understood but of the Bread which is called Body an Expression which in all likelihood this Abbot had learn'd of St. Austin who faith The Bread made for that use is consumed in receiving the Sacrament That which is set on the Table is consum'd the holy Celebration being ended Herriger Successor to Fulcuin and whom he that continued the History of the Abbots of Lobes mentions as a man whose Virtue and Knowledg was known even to Strangers He collected saith this Author several Passages of Catholick Fathers against Paschasius Ratbertus touching the Body and Blood of our Lord. The Ancient Customs of the Monastry of Cluny Reprinted by the care of Dom Luke D' Achery l. 2. ch 30. say The outside of the Challice is carefully rub'd lest there should the least drop of the Wine and Water remain and being consecrated it should fall to the ground and perish by which it appears they believed the Wine and water still remain'd after Consecration for the true Body of Jesus Christ cannot perish Again The Priest divides the Host and puts part of it into the Blood of one moiety he communicates himself and with the other he communicates the Deacon It cannot be so spoke of the Body of Jesus Christ then after the Priest has broke the Host he puts part of it into the Cup after the usual manner two parts on the Patten and covers both the one and the other with a clean Cloath but first of all he very carefully rubs the Challice and shakes it with the same hand with which he touched it fearing lest that breaking the Bread there should rest some part of the Body of our Lord which cannot be said of the true Body of Jesus Christ and elsewhere is prescrib'd what should be done If there chance to remain ever so little of the Body of our Saviour which is expounded to be a very little Crum as 't were indivisible and like an Atome To conclude treating of the Communion of sick Folks it is observ'd that the Body of our Lord is brought from the Church that it is broke and that the Priest holds on the Challice the part that he is to bring It must needs be that by the sence of these customs there must be Bread and Wine in the Sacrament that it may be broken and improperly called Body Ratherius Bishop of Verona saith As to the Corporal substance which the Communicant doth receive seeing that 't is I that do now ask the Question I must also answer my self and I thereto yield for seeing that to him that receives worthily it is the true Body altho one sees
that the Bread is the same it was before and true Blood altho the Wine is seen to be the same it was I confess I cannot say nor think what it is to him that doth receive unworthily that is to say that doth not abide in God. Now the Communicant can he receive a corporal Substance Can one say that one sees that the Bread is what 't was before if the Communicant receives no substance It is known on the contrary that what is seen is not Bread nor Wine Moreover Ratherius condemning Drunkenness and Excess in some of his Priests saith that some of them spew'd before the Altar of our Lord upon the Body and Blood of the Lamb this can be understood only of the Sacrament which borrows the Name of the thing signified the abuse whereof reflects on him that instituted it That the Authers of the ELEVENTH CENTURY did not believe Transubstantiation THE Author of the Life of St. Genulphius who in all probability lived in the beginning of the Eleventh Century and was published by John a Bosco a Celestin Frier relates of this Saint That from the very Day of his Ordination he spent the rest of his Life without tasting any Wine except it was that he receiv'd in the Celebration of the holy Sacrament One would not speak in this manner and believe that there was not Wine remaining in the Cup after Consecration Leutherick Arch-bishop of Sens who died in the year of our Lord 1032. did not believe Transubstantiation because we read of him in the Life of Pope John the XVII or according to others the Eleventh that in this Popes Life Leutherick Arch-bishop of Sens laid the Foundation and Elements of the Heresy of Berenger Whence it is that Helgald wrote in the Life of King Robert that his Doctrine grew and increased in the World Cresebat saith he in Saeculo notwithstanding the threatnings which this Prince made to depose him from his Dignity if he continued to teach it Fulbert Anno Dom. 1007. Bishop of Chartres and ordain'd by Leutherick did not believe Transubstantiation when he said in his 1 st Epistle to Adeodatus That Jesus Christ intending to take up his Body to Heaven left us the Sacrament for to be a pledg of his Body and Blood. That under the visible form of the Creature there is a secret Virtue that Operates in the holy Solemnities That the Divine Majesty is diffus'd and spread abroad in that which before was but a common thing but being sanctifi'd by the heavenly Word it inwardly becomes the Body of Jesus Christ. That this is effected by the holy Spirit that joyns unites and binds the Sacrament to the Body of Jesus Christ compaginante Spiritu sancto that the terrestrial matter surpassing the Merits of its Nature and Kind is changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ That this change is not impossible no more than that is which arrives to us by Baptism being changed into the Body of the Church not by any priviledge of Nature but by the purchase of Faith Non Naturae privilegio sed fidei precio being the same outwardly and changed inwardly Of Servants being become Children being vile and abject and all of a sudden acquiring a new Dignity What wonder is it that he that produced these Natures out of nothing should convert them into the dignity of a more excellent nature and make them pass into the substance of his Body Now the terms of pledges of the Body and Blood of the Lord do sufficiently shew that he made a difference betwixt the Sacrament and his Body therefore we see before that Ratramne drew the same consequence in saying that which is a Pledg and Image is distinct from that whereof it is an Image and Pledg These terms of a secret virtue by which it operates of the Sacred Majesty which it spreads abroad of the Holy Spirit that joins and unites of the matter which is advanced to a greater dignity and in that he confirms the change of the Bread by that which happens to Believers in Baptism and by that which besel the Manna in the wilderness as also what he farther says to Frudegard in his 2d Epistle of the Communion as of a thing whereof the Priest newly ordained during 40 days received a little Portion parvam particulam which might be taken by morsels or by bits minutatim sumere in that he calls the sanctified Bread Eucharist and that he saith That the sanctified Bread is called the true Body of Jesus Christ in that he saith elsewhere with St. Austin That he that abides not in Jesus Christ and in whom Jesus Christ abideth not doth not eat his Flesh nor drink his Blood though he eats and drinks to his condemnation the Sacrament of so great a thing All this sheweth that Berenger had all reason to alledg in his defence the Authority of Fulbert as appears by Berenger's Letter to Richard which Letter is printed by Dom Luke D' Achery in the 2d Tome of his Spicileg If things be so saith Berenger to Richard how is it that this Doctrine of the Eucharist contained in the Writings of Bishop Fulbert of glorious Memory should come to my knowledg which some indeed imagine to be of this Bishop but was indeed taught by St. Austin Bernon Abbot of Auge who about the Year 1030. wrote a Treatise of things concerning the Mass saith in the 1 st Chapter That Pope Sergius commanded to sing the Agnus Dei at the Breaking of the Body of the Lord now this being not to be understood of the proper Body of Jesus Christ it must be understood of the Sacrament which is the figure of his Body They do not speak so now they say the Sign is broken but they do not say the body of Jesus Christ is broken And in the 5th Chapter he saith that we are refreshed with the Wine which is in the Cup in Type of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Bruno Bishop of Argers was of Berengers opinion as appears by the 3d Tome of the Bibliotheca Patrum p. 319 in a Letter the Bishop of Liege writ to K. Henry against Bruno and Berenger his Arch-Deacon Sigebert in his Chronicle of Miroeus his Edition at Antwerp 1608 saith That many did dispute for and against Berenger by word of mouth and by Writing The Manuscript of this Chronicle which is seen in Monsieur d'Thous's Library saith the same As also Conrart de Brunwill apud Surium vita Wolphelmi ad ap Matthew of Westminster on the year 1080 saith That Berenger had almost corrupted all France Italy and England with his Doctrine Matthew Paris and William of Malmsbury do affirm That all France was full of his Doctrine Thomas Waldensis relates the Acts of the Council held under Gregory the 7th wherein there was a more moderate Confession of Faith touching the Sacrament prepared than that under Alexander the 2d predecessor to Gregory Berenger
Doctrine But to shew evidently that 't was but in the last Ages that this opinion was made an Article of Faith we need only consult the Doctors of the Primitive Church and see if they have effectively explain'd the Eucharist by the Systeme of Transubstantiation That the Fathers of the SECOND CENTURY did not believe Transubstantiation S. Iustin Martyr saith That after the common Prayers were ended there was presented to the chief of the Brethren which was God's Minister the Bread and the Wine mixt with Water which he receiv'd into his hands and giving thanks and glory to the Father of Heaven and Earth through Iesus Christ his Son and the Holy Ghost c. and the said President or Minister having ended his thanksgiving the People having all said Amen those whom we call Deacons and Ministers attending on this Holy Service give to every one present at the Holy Communion part of this Holy Bread so blessed and glorify'd and also of the Holy liquor mixt of Wine and Water upon which Prayers had been made And a little lower Behold Lord we do not receive this Bread nor this Wine as common Bread and Wine but as Iesus Christ is become Flesh and Blood by the Word so also the nourishment which by the Word is become a Sacrament and of which by conversion and change our flesh and Blood are nourish'd is as we have learned the Flesh and Blood of Iesus Christ incarnate If St. Iustin had believed that the substance of the Bread Wine and Water had been changed after Consecration so that they had been destroy'd how could he have said that after Consecration the Deacons did distribute to the People the Bread the Wine and the Water Secondly When he saith we do not take this Bread and Wine as common Bread and Wine this language amongst the antient Doctors intimates that both the one and the other do still subsist but that by Consecration they have acquir'd a new use and quality As when Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. 3. Ad Illum saith Approach not to Baptism as to common Water Or as Gregory Nyssen saith of Baptism Do not despise the Holy Font and look not upon it as common Water To conclude this blessed Martyr saith Our Body and Blood are nourish'd by the change of the Eucharistical food which converts and turns it self into our Flesh and Blood. These words plainly shew that 't is the Bread and Wine which are turn'd into our Substance into our Flesh and into our Blood seeing that 't is certain that the real Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ is not converted into our Flesh and Blood. So when Iustin saith That the Sacramental Food is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ that imports that 't is not common Bread and Wine but a Bread and Wine which is to be consider'd as the Flesh and Blood of the Word incarnate S. Irenaeus proves against Valentine and his followers that our Bodies shall not be destroy'd and by consequence that they shall be raised incorruptible by receiving the Sacrament as the Bread of the Eucharist becomes supernatural by the invocation of the Holy Ghost We establish in the Eucharist saith S. Irenaeus the Communion and unity of the Flesh and of the Spirit for as the Bread which is of the Earth receiving the invocation of God is no longer common Bread but is the Sacrament compos'd of two things one Terrestrial and the other Celestial So also our Bodies which receive the Eucharist are no longer corruptible but have the Hope of a future Resurrection This passage doth suppose that the Bread remains in the Eucharist in the first place because if Consecration did destroy the substance of the Bread and Wine it must be confess'd the Holy Doctor had taken wrong measures to shew that the Flesh is not destroy'd by the grace of the Holy Spirit by the Bread of the Eucharist which it self should be destroy'd by the grace of the Spirit which comes upon it Secondly Because a little before Irenaeus saith How is it they say the Flesh shall be destroy'd and turn to corruption seeing it is nourish'd with the body and blood of Christ Now the Flesh is fed by the conversion of nourishment into the body which not being to be said of Iesus Christ is only to be apply'd to the Bread. Moreover these words That the Eucharist is compos'd of two things sufficiently shew that the Bread remains for to say Irenaeus means by a Terrestrial thing the accidents of Bread Wine besides that S. Austin saith in the second Book of Soliloquies Chap. 12. that 't is a thing monstrous to say that accidents subfist without a subject Irenaeus also himself saith Book 2. cap. 14. that Water cannot be without moisture Fire without heat a Stone without hardness For these things are so united that the one cannot be separated from the other but the one must subsist in the other So in like manner by this Terrestrial thing must be understood the Bread as S. Gregory Naz. saith in his fourth Oration according to Bilius his version Baptism also is compos'd of two things Water and the Spirit the one is visible and is meant in a corporal manner but the other is invisible and operates after a spiritual manner the one is Typical the other cleanseth that which is inward and most hidden Clement of Alexandria saith the same in different terms The Blood of Christ is twofold the one is carnal whereby we are deliver'd from corruption the other is spiritual whereby we are anointed and that is to drink the Blood of Iesus Christ to be partakers of the incorruption of the Lord. Now the virtue of the Word is the Holy Spirit as the Blood is the vertue of the Flesh. By Analogy then the Wine mixt with Water as the Spirit with Man and this mixture makes the Wine the pleasanter to drink but the Spirit leadeth to incorruption Now this mixture of the one with the other to wit of the Wine and the Word is called Eucharist which is highly esteem'd whereby those who worthily partake of it by Faith are sanctify'd both in their Body and Soul. When Clement of Alexandria said that the Eucharist is a mixture of Wine and the Word it is a composition a mixture which could not be if there was but the Word only in the Eucharist For a mixture is at least of two things So the Fathers have called Jesus Christ a mixture of God and Man. The Body of Man saith S. Austin is a mixture of Body and Soul the Person of Christ is a mixture of God and Man. The Epitome of Theodotus saith The Bread and Oyl are sanctified by the virtue of the name and they remain not what they were before though to look on them they seem to be the same but by virtue they are are changed into a Spiritual force So water sanctified is become Baptism it not only retains what 's less but also
to you this Sacrament I say which lifts us up to Heaven It appears by these words that S. Gregory lookt upon the Consecrated Bread and Wine as figures of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ now if they are figures then they are not that whereof they be figures and by consequence there is in the Sacrament something else besides the very Body of Jesus Christ to wit the Bread and Wine which are the Types and figures of it For to say that S. Gregory means only that the accidents of Bread and Wine are the Types and figures when he saith his Sister mingled her tears with the Antitypes of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as many as she could keep in her hands Si quid Antityporum pretiosi Corporis aut Sanguinis manus thesaurisasset these words as many as she could gather in her hands signify as many portions and parts of the Eucharist as she could gather up paululum Eucharistiae as Eusebius speaks in the sixth Book of his Hist. chap. 36. as having gather'd together a little of the Sacrament and having separated it from a greater Mass or from a greater quantity of liquor Now all antiquity agree that the lines the superficies the qualities are inseparable from their subject so that this little parcel of Antitypes this parcel of the figures cannot be a part of accidents and of appearances Gregory Nyssen going to prove that the Water of Baptism for being Water ought not to be despised but that after Consecration it hath a marvellous Virtue he proves it by the Example of the Eucharist and extream Unction The Bread saith he before Consecration is but common Bread but after Consecration it is called and is the Body of Christ so also the Mystical Oyl and Wine before Benediction are common things and of no virtue but after Benediction both of them have a great virtue Now these words shew that the Bread and Wine remain after Consecration for it appears that St. Gregory's Design is to prove that common and ordinary things have a marvellous force after Consecration and if the Bread and Wine were destroy'd after Consecration what did operate would not be a vile and mean thing because it would be the very Body of Jesus Christ and St. Gregory would not well have proved that vile things have any marvellous virtue in them after Consecration for instance Bread and Wine which not subsisting after Consecration could not have the virtue to sanctify S. Ambrose in his Epistle to Justus explaining what Gomer is saith it is a measure and that this measure signifies the quantity of Wine which rejoyces the heart of Man and having explain'd the Wine of the drinking Wisdom Sobriety and Temperance he saith That it is to be understood more fully of the Blood of Jesus Christ which neither admits increase nor decrease as to grace But of which if one receive more or less the measure however of Redemption is equal to all Plenius de sanguine intelligitur cujus ad gratiam nihil minuitur nihil adaugetur si parum sumas si plurimum haurias eadem perfecta est omnibus mensura Redemptionis This manner of speaking of taking more or less of the Blood of Jesus Christ is not to be understood of the proper Body of Jesus Christ which is indivisible there must be therefore in the Eucharist besides the proper Blood of Jesus Christ a Typical and Symbolical Blood which is the Wine which is so called and of which we may say we receive more or less The same Father saith elsewhere That as often as we receive the Sacraments which by the virtue of Holy Prayer are transfigur'd into the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ we shew forth the Death of Christ. It is certain that by these words S. Ambrose lookt upon the Bread and Wine as figures of the Flesh and Blood now the figure being a thing distinct from what it represents as being two correlatives the one of which is not the other it must be concluded that S. Ambrose believed that there is Bread and Wine in the Eucharist which are the figures of the Bread and Heavenly Power The same Father speaking of the blessing of Aser explaining these Words Ashur his Bread is fat he shall feed Princes saith Jesus Christ who is Ashur that is rich has nourish'd Princes When he multiply'd the five and seven Loaves and gave them to his Apostles to distribute to the multitude he every day gives us this Bread saith he when the Priest doth consecrate we may also by this Bread understand the Lord himself continues S. Ambrose who has given us his Flesh to eat By these words it appears S. Ambrose distinguishes three sorts of Bread which Jesus Christ gave to these Princes the first is that which he gave in multiplying the five and seven Loaves John 6. and Matth. 15. the second is the Bread which the Priest consecrates at Mass the third is that of which it is said I am the Bread of Life which is Jesus Christ himself As then the second is not the first so neither is the second the third The Consecrated Bread is another thing than Jesus Christ the Bread of Life and by consequence there is in the Sacrament a Bread distinct from Jesus Christ the Heavenly Bread. Gaudentius upon Exodus saith With great reason we receive with the Bread the figure of the Body of Christ because as the Bread is compos'd of many grains which being ground into Flower is kneaded with Water and baked by Fire so also the Body of Christ is made and collected of the whole race of Mankind and is perfected by the Fire of the Holy Ghost Now as this Author places the figure of the Body of Jesus Christ in that the Bread is made up of sundry grains reduced into Meal kneaded with Water and baked with fire it follows that he believed the Bread remained in the Sacrament and so much the rather because this Bishop saith elsewhere figura non est veritas sed imitatio veritatis S. Chrysostom expounding these words I will no more drink of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new in the Kingdom of my Father saith because Jesus Christ had spoke to his Disciples of his Passion and of his Death now he speaks to them of his Resurrection making mention of his Kingdom calling his resurrection by this name Now wherefore did Jesus Christ drink after his Resurrection fearing lest ignorant persons should think his Resurrection was only imaginary because many took the act of drinking as a true sign of the Resurrection Therefore the Apostles going to prove his Resurrection say we that have eat and drank with him Jesus Christ. Therefore assuring them that they should see him after his Resurrection and that he would stay with them and that they might bear witness of his Resurrection might see and behold him tells them I will no