years labour neither eloquence of false Teachers nor force of civil powers has been able so wholly to pervert our Nation as to the belief of that high mystery of the real presence but even still there remain a considerable number retainers of the antient belief And can you think that not in a much greater space of time to wit betwixt the sixth and nineth Century all the Christian world could be perswaded to admit so strange a doctrin to nature and reason and yet no man by vertue of History or Tradition should be able to give any account what Orators prevailed with the world to relinquish the belief of their Ancestors or what power of civil Magistrates forced them to it Especially seeing there have not wanted Ecclesiastical Historigraphers who have made mention of matters of far less note than such a change of Faith must needs have made But what place will there remain for doubting that this high mystery was always believed if not only all writers be silent as to any change but also the seventh and eighth Age yea the most Primitive times do positively attest this very mystery by the pens of the chiefest Champions of the Christian Church who have left us any memorials of their learning and piety in their deservedly admired works I shall faithfully recount their words be your own judge what their sentiment was In the first place then glorious Saint and great Doctor S. Augustin tell us your Faith concerning the Holy Eucharist Is it Bakers bread or the body of our Lord and God I remember saies the holy Doctor in his 28. Ser. de verbis Domini when I treated of the Sacraments I told you that before the words of Christ that which is offered up is called Bread but when the words of Christ shall have been pronounced now it is no longer called bread but the body of Christ. And explicating those words of the Royal Prophet Psal. 98. v. 5. Exalt ye our Lord God and adore his foot-stool for it is holy Now what is this Foot-stool of God why saies this great Doctor The Earth is his Foot-stool But how is the Earth holy and to be adored by us The Saint goes on and tells us how Our Lord took Earth of the Earth because Flesh is of the Earth and he took Flesh of the Flesh of Mary And because he walked here in Flesh and gave to us that very Flesh to be eaten by us to our Salvation but no body eats that Flesh unless he shall first have adored it And indeed what could we expect that S. Austin should teach and believe concerning this divine Sacrament but what he had been taught by his Father and Instructor in Christ the glorious St. Ambrose And what was that Hear his words lib. 4. De Sacramentis Thou wilt perhaps say nnto me my Bread is ordinary Bread but that bread is bread before the Sacramental words but when Consecration has been made of bread it is made the Flesh of Christ. But how can bread be the body of Christ By Consecration Consecration by what and whose words is it perfected By the words of our Lord Jesus For all other things which are said Praise is given to God By prayer supplication is made for the people for Kings for the rest When the time is come that the Venerable Sacrament is to be made now the Priest does not use his own words but the words of Christ therefore the word of Christ makes this Sacrament But what word of Christ That word by which all things were made Our Lord commanded and Heaven was made our Lord commanded and the Earth was made Our Lord commanded and the Seas were made Our Lord commanded and every Creature was produced Doest thou see then how operative the word of Christ is If then there be so great force in the word of our Lord Jesus that it could make things which were not begin to be how much rather is it operative that those things which were should be and be charged into another thing Heaven was not the Sea was not the Earth was not but hear him saying He said the word and they were made he commanded and they were Created That therefore I may Answer thee the body of Christ was not before Consecration bâ— after Consecration I say unto thee that now the Body of Christ is He said it and it was made He commanded and it was Created And in chap. 5. of the same Book Before the words of Christ the Chalice is full of Wine and Water but when the words of Christ have bad their operation then it is made the blood which Redeemed the people See then in how many kinds of things the word of Christ is able to change all things Moreover our Lord Jesus himself testifies unto us that we receive his body and blood ought we then to doubt of his testification Add to S. Austin and S. Ambrose the Learned S. Hierom in his Epistle ad Heliodorum Far be it from me saies the Saint that I should speak amiss of those who succeeding the Apostles do make the body of Christ with their sacred mouth And in his 85. Epistle to Enagrius By whose prayers the body and blood of Christ is made Take notice that these three Holy Fathers lived not four hundred years after our B. Saviours death S. Cyprian yet nearer the Apostles age does no less clearly nor fully attest the same verity in his Serm. de Caena Domini That bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples being changed not in shape but in its nature by the Omnipotency of the Word was made Flesh. And in his Book de Lapsis reprehending such as were angry with the Priests of God who refused to admit them to the holy Communion of the B. Sacrament after they had polluted themselves with the profane Sacrifices of Heathen Idolaters expresses their sin in these words He that has fall'n from his Faith threatens them that have stood firm Sacrilegious wâ—etch he is angry with the Priests of God that he is not prosently admitted with defiled hands to receive the Body of our Lord or to drink his blood with his defiled mouth And this was the very doctrin of his learned Master Tertullian who yet nearer approached the holy Apostles lib. de Resur cur The Flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ that the soul may be made fat with God And in his Book de Idololatria he complains of the prosaneness of some Christians who made no scruple to day to be working in their Shops making Idolatrous Statues for the Heathens and yet to morrow would presume to come into the Christian Congregations and receive the Sacred mysteries of our Lords body and blood and communicate them to others His words are these To touch the body of our Lord with those hands which give bodies to Devils Nor is this all their Crime would be less did they only receive from the hands of others what they contaminate and pollute
high mystery is wrought But my design being to satisfie Unbelievers as to the substance of the mystery and not to puzle the Faith of Believers by making them glare too wistly upon the manner how this divine secret is wrought it being more safely admired together with the mystery of the Incarnation and ever blessed Trinity then curiously pried into I resolved to draw a Veyl before it by a profound silence of the several explications of Divines and to content my self with letting you know in general how different Doctors of different Philosophical Principles according to their several Philosophies differently explicate the mystery of the H. Eucharist and defend it differently against Calvinists as they do the mystery of the B. Trinity against the Antitrinitarians and of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word against the Arrians some by virtual distinction others by real formal and others otherwise And yet all hold that after Consecration the bread is no longer bread but is changed into the body of our Lord but how it is done some say one way some another according to their different Tenets in Philosophy still all agreeing that this change is fitly called Transubstantiation and that with good reason for the same remaining the same must needs be the same and cannot possibly be made what it was not without some change The bread then that it may become our Savious body must have some change wrought in it but in its accidents its evident there is none they remaining the same as before therefore the change must be in the substance And can now the change of the substance of bread into the substance of our B. Lords body be called by a fitter name than a substantial change or Transubstantiation And this some of the Learnedst of the Church of England would do well to reflect on who urged by the clearness of our Saviviours own words This is my Body and the multitude of Testimonies of the Fathers of the first six hundred years and the impossibility of such a Doctrins over spreading the whole Christian world without any appearance of its beginning and the opposition it must needs have found by reason of its strangeness both to sence and reason and its engaging the whole Church in a material at least Idolatry unless it had been taught the world at first by our B. Lord and his Apostles I say some of the Learnedst of the Engglish Glergy being urged by such considerations as these confess the Holy Eucharist as they begin to call it after Consecration to be really and truly our B. Saviours body and therefore fall down before it and adore it and for this cause disown the new Rubrick of the Common-prayer-book which saies our Lords body is in Heaven and not upon the Altar These Doctors will tell you they acknowledge the thing only they dare not be so bold as the Romanists to determine the manner And one of the Learnedst of them Mr. Thorndike asks why cannot our B. Saviour appear to us in what shape he pleases in the shape of a Gardiner or if it so please him in the shape of bread and wine These Doctors I say would do well to reflect the Church of Rome has not determin'd the manner of our B. Saviours bodies being in the Sacrament and therefore her Divines some explicate it one way some another but only the thing it self the manner how being left to the dispute of her Doctors 2. Assertion If our B. Saviour would have left us his sacred body and blood instead of all the Sacrifices of Sheep and Oxen under the Mosaical dispensation to be offered up by Christian Priests and to be fed upon by the Christian people it would have been a favour worthy of his excessive love to Mankind by reason of the innumerable benefits which would have accrued to us by the continual oblition and presence of so worthy a sacrifice What an incentive would this have been to Christian piety How would such a Sacrifice as this have compell'd High and Low Rich and Poor Learned and Unlearned with a strange reverence to have flocked about our Christian Altars where not a Lamb or a Beast but the body of God and the blood of God and by concomitancy whole God and Man Christ Jesus should have been offered up by choice Persons to the Almighty for the good of the World How would the presence of such an Oblation have kept them attentive and encreased their servor in their Prayers when they should have been able to have said This before me which I see with my eyes is my dear Redeemer and God that was Crucified for me and is to be my Judge How earnestly should we have made all our Petitions to him and how heartily should we have thanked him for all his Love To understand this Imagin our B. Saviour should appear to you in your Chamber every Morning in that very body and shape He is now in Heaven were you assured it was he and not an illusion with what humility would you prostrate your self before him How heartily would you cry him mercy for all your sins and earnestly recommend all the desires of your soul unto him And how would this high favour melt your soul into a mòst tender affection towards him But these would have been the happy circumstances of the whole Christan world would our Omnipotent Lord out of his abundant goodness have left us his sacred self under the disguise of the Accidents of bread and wine The same Petitions with a like fervour would every Christian have made every Holy Mass which you would have made every Morning upon such an Apparition as was supposed My dear Jesus true God and Man the very same who art in Heaven in all splendor and glory art here upon the holy Altar before me Veiled under the vile appearances of common bread and ordinary wine and all this for my sake that to my souls health thou mightest be seen handled and tasted by me Nor couldst thou be hindred from this excess of Love to me unworthy Sinner although thou didst foresee the Revilings thou wert to endure for it from ungrateful Calvinists Who for this would call thee a Breadden God and reproach thy devout Adorers as more stupid Idolaters than the very Pagan Worshippers of Sun and Moon Rather then I should want the delicious comfort of thy continual presence the happy pledge of eternally seeing thee face to face all this and yet greater indignities wouldst thou subject thy self unto by one to to be reviled by his impious tongue by another to be trampled under his foul feet by a third to be cast into some Sink or Jaques O Impiety O Ingratitude of finful men O unheard of goodness of our dearest Lord thus to abject himself for our sakes But what wonder if when he was in a passible mortal body he would permit himself by wicked Miscreants to be torn with cruel Whips to be bespatterd with filthy Spittle and to be made black
but moreover they deliver to others what they have polluted Makers of Idols are admitted into the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy O Impiety Once the Jews laid profane hands on Christ these daily violate his body O hands deserving to be cut off But shall we desire a Greek Father or two to give us their sense concerning our present Controversie S. Crysost ho. 60. ad pop Antioch Because the Word saies This is my Body let us assent and believe And a little after How many are there now adaies that say O that I could see his Figure his Garments his Shooes Lo thou seest himself thou touchest him thou eatest him Thou desirest to see his Garments but he give thee not only to see but also to eat and touch and take himself into thee And a little after Consider what an indignation thou hast against the Traytor Judas and against those that Crucified him Therefore consider lest thou also beest not guilty of the body and blood of Christ. They killed his most holy body and thou receivest it with a polluted soul after so many benefits For he was not satisfied to be made man to be Buffetted and Crucified but moreover he does mix himself with us and makes us his body not only by Faith but in very deed And ho. 24. in Ep. 1. ad Corin. Christ has given us his body both that we might have it and might eat it which is the greatest sign of love Wherefore Job chap. 31. that he might show the love of his Servants to him said they oftentimes of their execeeding great love to him would say concerning him Who will give us of his Flesh that we might be filled with it Even so Christ has given us his Flesh that we might feed upon it thereby to allure us to love him very much This body the Sages adored in the Manger Thou seest it not in the Manger but npon the Altar not a Woman holding it in her arms but a Priest present Nor do I show thee Angels nor Arch-angels nor Heaven nor the Heaven of Heavens but the very Lord of all these things Nor doest thou only see him but touch him not only touch him but eat him and having received him returns to thy home And Hom. 60 ad pop Antioch and 83. in Math. Let us every where believe God and not oppose him although that which he saies seem absurd to our sense and thoughts let his speech overcome both our sense and our reason which let us do in all things and especially in the Mysteries not only regarding those things which lie before us but also holding fast to his words For we cannot be deceived by his words but our sense is most easily deceived those cannot be false this is deceived very often Because therefore he has said this is my body let us make no doubt but believe and see it with the yes of our understanding And in his 3. ho. in Ep. ad Ephes Let us think that him that sits above who is adored by the Angels 't is him that we tast that we feed upon And ho. 2. ad pop Antioc Elias left his Disciple his Mantle but the Son of God ascending left us his Flesh. But Elias indeed put off his Mantle but Christ both left us his Flesh and retaining it ascended with it Let us not therefore be dishartened nor lament nor fear the difficulty of the times For he that has not refused to shed his blood for us and has communicated to us both his flesh and blood will not refuse to do any thing for our Salvation Hear another Greek Doctor S. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechistical discourses which are the plainest declarations of the mysteries of our holy Faith Catech. 4. Mys. Seeing then Christ himself so affirms and says concerning the bread This is my body who after this can dare to doubt of it and the same also affirming and saying This is my blood who I say can doubt of it and say it is not his blood He changed water into wine in Cana of Galilee by his sole Will and shall he not be worthy whom we may believe that he changed wine into his blood For if being invited to a corporeal Wedding he wrought a stupendious miracle shall we not confess him much rather to have given his body and blood to the Children of the Bridegroom Wherefore with all assurance let us take the body and blood of Christ for under the appearance of bread is given to thee his body and under the appearance of wine is given his blood that having received the body and blood of Christ thou maiest be made partaker together with him of his body and Blood So shall we be Christophers such as carry Christ in them when we shall have received his body and blood into our Members and so as S. Peter saies shall be made partakers of the divine Nature Do not therefore look upon it as bare bread and bare wine for it is the body and blood of Christ according to the words of our Lord himself For although thy sense suggest this to thee yet let Faith confirm thee do not judge of the thing by thy tast but rather from Faith hold for certain so that thou hast no doubt that the body and blood are given to thee Knowing and accounting for most certain that this bread which is seen by us is not bread although our tast judge it to be bread but that it is the body of Christ. And the wine which is seen by us although it may seem wine to our sense of tasting that yet it is not wine but the blood of Christ. Can the holy Council of Trent have plainer words than these or fuller to our present purpose Add the testimony of S. Justin Martyr who lived yet nearer the Age of the Apostles in his Apology for the Christians to Antoninus the Emperor in which he gives him an account of the Christian Faith and where certainly he would not make it more mysterious than it was nor more hard to be believed according to any part of it then the truth and common belief of Christians forced him but rather would moderate the mysteriousness of it than encrease it Hear him then giving an account of the Holy Eucharist This meat is called by us the Eucharist because no body may partake of it but he who believes those things to be true which we say and lives so as Christ has taught us For we do not take these things as common and ordinary bread but as by the word of God our Saviour Jesus Christ was made man and had flesh and blood for our Salvation so we have been taught that this meat which is Consecrated by the Prayers of that speech we received from him is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ who was made man For the Apostles in their Commentaries which are called Gospels have delivered that Christ so commanded and that having taken bread when he had given thanks he said Do this