AN EPISTLE OF A CATHOLIC To his Friend A PROTESTANT Touching the Doctrine of Real Presence.  
OR, The Answer to a Question propounded in these Terms.  
What should move you, contrary to the plain Testimony of your Senses, to believe, that after Consecration the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament is become REALLY Christ's very Body and Blood.  Matth. 22.29. Ye do err, not KNOWING the Scriptures, nor the POWER of God. It is a manifest sign of an unbelieving Heart, in the Works of God to ask HOW This or That can be. St. Basil. lib. 5. contr. Eunom. 
Printed in the Year, 1659.   

An Epistle of a Catholic to his Friend a Protestant touching the Doctrine of Real Presence.  
SIR,  
YOu having desired me to give you some probable Reasons, which did, or do persuade me to believe, that after the words of Consecration, the Bread, contrary to the Senses of Seeing, and Feeling, and Tasting, is Christ's very Body, and the Wine his Blood; in answer to your demand, I shall, according to my weak Capacity, tell you truly by what Reasons I am chief so persuaded.  
First, the Holy Scriptures unanimously in express terms say, That it is his Body, and that it is his Blood: the places in the Evangelists are so manifest and well known, that it may seem needless to name them; however for the importance of the matter I quote them to you. Mat. 26.26, 28. Mark 14.22, 24. Luke 22.19, 20.  
Secondly, the Ancient Fathers did never understand those places otherwise, then in their literal and proper sense; as appeareth by their Works left in writing, which are too numerous here to insert: and is acknowledged by many of the most eminent Protestants themselves, as namely, Philip Melancthon, the Centurists, Bucer, Peter Martyr, Calvin, and others; as you may see in the Book called The Progeny of Catholics and Protestants. lib. 2. cap. 8. pag. 35, 36, 37. & lib. 5. cap. 3. pag. 13.  
Thirdly, it was the unanimous Doctrine of the Counsels: not one of them ever determining the contrary, though at some times moved so to have done by some few private persons, that Heretically opposed the Doctrine; and many of the said Counsels having expressly determined for it.  
Fourthly, it was ever the constant Belief and Practice of the universal Church throughout the world: and whensoever any did oppose it, they were presently judged, condemned, and cast out by the Church of that Age, as Heretics, and in all after ages so likewise esteemed, namely Heretics, and their memory held abominable: stinking like to those Carcases (Esay 66.24.) which it is not improbable the Prophet in Spirit might principally mean, when he said that the Carcases of the men that had transgressed, being cast out, shall be an abhorring to all flesh. For so indeed most commonly are the memories of all Heretics; they are an abhorring, not only to the Catholic Church, but to all flesh: for the latter Heretics do, in one kind or other, usually condemn the former as much as Catholics do.  
Fifthly, the Divisions and Differences, which are among those, whose opinions in this matter be contrary to the Church, are so many and manifold, that it is not easy to reckon them; and do clearly convince, that there can be no certainty of Truth in any of their said different opinions. Luther in his time observed Eight several Expositions of those words, Hoc est corpus meum, (This is my Body) all contrary one to another, and coming (as he saith) not from the Spirit of God, but from the mouth of Devils; and not long after him Claudius de Saints, a learned Bishop of the Catholic Church, in his Book of the Eucharist, reckoned no less than fourscore different Expositions of the said words of Institution, This is my Body, etc. and this is my Blood, etc. all earnestly maintained by learned Protestants with rejection of the contrary sense. So that we see, once out of the way of true expounding of Scripture, and there's no end of erring. Luther speaking of Carolstadius, Zuinglius, and Oecolampadius, (all three Sacramentarians, as he calls them) saith, Cursed be their Charity and Concord for ever and ever; signifying, that he would have nothing to do with them in the matter of this Sacrament. He said moreover, that they expounded the words, This is my Body, as absurdly, as if one should expound that Text in the Book of Genesis, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, thus, The Cuckoo did eat up the Tittling, (or Hedge-Sparrow) bones and all: and as for that Passage of Saint John, Chap 1. v. 14. of his Gospel, The word was made flesh, their Exposition, saith Luther, is as good as to say, A crooked staff is made a Kite. Thus did Luther not without cause set out and deride the Sacramentarians expounding of Scripture, as you may see more at large noted pag. 22. of the Answer to Mr. Charks Preface called The Trial of Spirits.  
Sixthly, if the words This is my Body be to be expounded thus, This is a figure, or, This is a sign of my Body, then is there no hard mystery, no hard saying at all in those words; nor in those other which our Saviour spoke, John 6.53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you: which were utterly contrary, not only to the speeches, language, and confessions of all Writers, and of all Records of Antiquity, which acknowledge a great difficulty and hardness in this Mystery, and a great irreconcilable repugnancy to carnal sense and Reason; that the Eucharist (or Sacrament) should be verily and truly Christ's Body and Blood; but contrary to the whole purport of our Lords Answer to the Capernaites, whose great stumbling question was, how Christ could give them his flesh to eat. This both They, and also some of his Disciples, called an hard saying; they could not understand how it should be done: nor yet by the Answer which our Saviour gave them, did they, or indeed could they in reason, understand it as the Sacramentarians now do, to wit, that the Bread (in a Spiritual sense) is only a figure of his Body, and not his very Body indeed. For what hardness had there been then to conceive, and comprehend the full nature of the Mystery? especially how could his Saying have been thought so hard, that it should move many of Christ's own Disciples to leave him, and to walk no longer with him. And surely a sad parting it was, seeing our Lord presently upon it said, as it were mournfully, to the Twelve, and will ye also go away? And yet notwithstanding, though it were for their satisfaction, and to keep them from going away with the rest, our Saviour (even he who is so great a lover of souls) thought fit to make them no other answer but this, Doth this offend you? what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before, John 6.62. as much as if he had said, though I do ascend and leave you, yet of necessity my flesh must be eaten, and my blood be drunken, for otherwise life cannot be had; if therefore this saying, You must eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, offend you now, and seem an hard saying to you now, while he is present with you, what will it do then, when you shall see him leave you, and ascend up in his Body into heaven, where he was before? how will you then think it possible to eat his flesh? This (I say) was the effect of our Lords answer to them, concerning their wondering how they should be able to eat Christ's flesh, and their being scandalised at it as a thing altogether impossible, as you may see, John 6.53, 54. Whence surely it appeareth, that if either our Saviour had expounded himself to mean, or they had understood it that he did mean, that his flesh should be eaten and his blood drunk in a sign or figure only, that speech of his, what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before, could have had no sufficient reason. For doubtless the sign (or figure) of his Body, whatsoever it were, might easily enough be eaten by them, after that his Body should be ascended. To take Bread, and to break it, in token that Christ's Body was broken for us upon the Cross, is no such hard thing, but that it may be done as well in Christ's absence, as in his presence, yea something more properly in his absence, then in his presence, at least then in his visible, natural and ordinary presence: but now it is clear, our Saviour in that place mentions his Ascension to his Disciples, as a thing that should make the mystery of eating his flesh to seem more difficult to them, and not less; therefore he meant they should eat it, more than in a bare sign, or figure only: for that (I say) they might as easily do, when he were in heaven, as while he was on earth.  
Moreover our Lord knowing, that the Capernaites looked upon him as a mere man; and also that, while he spoke of giving them his flesh to eat, they understood him in a gross and carnal manner, as that he should give them his flesh cut in pieces to eat, or the like; to extinguish and take away that gross conceit out of their minds, he telleth them, that Flesh, to wit, according to their gross manner of understanding, profitteth nothing. But now first, his Flesh, was not mere humane flesh, as they apprehended it, but it was the flesh of the Son of God, yea of the true God, 1 John 5.20. it was flesh united to the Deity; and therefore in respect of other common flesh, (whether of Beasts or Men) Christ's Body was to be accounted, rather a Spiritual and Divine Body, rather Spiritual and Divine Flesh, then natural and common. It was the Lord's Body, who came down from heaven, and is eternally, from everlasting to everlasting, always in heaven; it was a Body full of grace and excellent virtue, and also a Body full of divine and incomprehensible Mystery. It was a Body Incarnate by the Holy Ghost without man, and born of a Virgin without forcing or violating the Womb; a Body that passed through a multitude, and was not discerned, Luke 4.30. compared with John 8.59. A Body that went out of the Sepulchre, not forcing away the stone, Matth. 28.2, 5, 6. That came into the room, where the Disciples were gathered together, the doors being shut, John 20.19. it came in, I say, and stood in the midst of them, before they ever perceived it, just as if it had been a Spirit; and insomuch as the Disciples, Luke 24.36, 37. took it verily to have been a spirit. And therefore of such a Body as this, and of such a Person as Christ was (God even the true God, blessed for ever) to say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat, or how can the Sacrament rightly consecrated be his Body, is a foolish and an infidel question. For he can do it well enough; he can give us his flesh to eat, and his blood to drink, though our sense perceive it not: and though (as he saith) we must eat his Body, yet his Body remaineth always whole; it is not to be cut or torn in pieces, as the Capernaites imagined: for he doth not say, he would give us a piece of his flesh, or a part of his fl●sh, but his flesh entirely, that is to say, his whole Body, the entire Humanity which he received of the Blessed Virgin; this he would give to every one of us. He can do all things; to him nothing is impossible. He was with two of his Disciples at Emmaus, talking with them, and conversing with them, and immediately vanished out of their sight, and was present with other Disciples at Jerusalem, as may be gathered from Luke 24.29, 31. compared with John 20.19. And though he be always at the right hand of God in Heaven, as appears Acts 3.22. yet is he also sometimes (when he pleases) upon earth to convert sinners, as for example Saul, Acts 9.17.27. and to comfort the faithful in their prisons, as Acts 23.11. He can do all things, I say; he can (as God) do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth. What are we then (silly creatures) to question, how he can give us his flesh to eat, seeing he hath said, that we must eat it, or perish.  
But still you object, and say, that this Doctrine, viz. that Bread should become Christ's real Body in truth and substance, is so strangely absurd, that you cannot believe it. I answer, no more could the Jews, nor some of his Disciples; of whom therefore (as taxing and noting their incredulity thereby) our Lord saith, John 6.64, 65. That no man can come unto him, and believe his words, except it were given him from above: and if there had been nothing, that is, no greater mystery, in these words of Christ, This is my Body, etc. but only this, viz. a figure or sign of my Body, what needed all that contest, so long, so difficult about the words, as was betwixt Christ and the Jews? Yea then have the universal Church, Counsels, Fathers, Martyrs, and all been deceived; for never any of them all took the Sacrament to be only a Figure of Christ's Body.  
But you say you cannot believe it. Tell me; Is it not as easy for our humane Reason to conceive that the Bread, which our Lord said was his Body, should be so indeed, as it is to conceive, that the little Babe, sucking at his Virgin-mothers' breast, was the Creator of the whole Universe, both of the Heavens and Earth, of the Sea, and of all things therein contained? Is it not as easy for a Christian to believe this Doctrine, as to believe, that the little Babe in the Manger, whom the three Sages adored, was the Almighty God? Faith may and must believe these things, though sense and reason cannot. Therefore St. Paul speaks, 2 Cor. 10.5. of captivating our understanding, and every thought and imagination to the obedience of Christ; and Rom. 1.5. he saith, that the Gospel is made known unto all Nations for the obedience of Faith, that is to say, that by faith, and by believing all that the Gospel required of them, men might show themselves to be entirely obedient and subject unto God, in their understandings no less then in their affections and wills. And truly considering the way and order of God Almighty's deal with the sons of men, we ought not to think it strange, that he should, in this particular of eating, require a renuntiation of our senses. We may do well to remember, that when time was, by following our senses contrary unto God's command, we lost Paradise; and if now by obeying God contrary to our senses, Paradise may be regained, we shall have no great cause to murmur. So that indeed this Imposition of believing and eating contrary to our senses, seems (as it were) a certain Penance, which God lays upon man for his first and great sin; to the end, that as by following his senses contrary to God's express word and command, Adam lost Heaven and eternal happiness, as much as in him lay; so by an obedient and submissive Faith in God's word and unto his command, renouncing the dictates of our own sense and all suggestions of flesh and blood, the sons of Adam might, through Grace, recover Heaven and eternal happiness.  
Sense and natural Reason tells Naaman, that the Rivers of Damascus were as likely to cure him of his Leprosy, as Jordan in Judea, 2 Kings 5.12. but he found it otherwise. So it was contrary to sense, and contrary to all natural reason, that the walls of Jericho should fall down at Israel's blowing with Rams-horns; yet we know they did so, Joshua 6.20. Contrary to sense Moses divided the Sea by the stroke of a rod, Exodus 14.16, 21. And contrary to sense Jordan divided itself, as soon as it was but touched by the feet of the Priests, Joshua 3.15, 16. And contrary to sense Iron did swim, 2 Kings 6.6. It was contrary to sense, that a little meal and oil (no more than would make one cake) should feed the Widow, the Prophet, and her Son many days, or a long time together, and not waste, 1 Kings 17.12, 16. It was contrary to sense, that five loaves and two fishes should satisfy the hunger of five thousand persons; and that there should remain twelve baskets full of broken meat, after all had eaten, Mat. 14.20. Mark 6.43. John 6.13. Considering the deadness of Sarahs' womb, as the Scripture speaketh, Rom. 4.19. and also of Abraham's own body, it was contrary to sense and re●son, that Sarah should have a child; yet Abraham believing what God had said to him, his Faith found the effect of the promise, and it was counted to him for righteousness For by believing, saith the Scripture, Rom. 4.20. he gave glory to God, and was counted the friend of God, James 2.23. So is it in this matter and mystery of the Eucharist; they that believe what our Saviour hath said, and accordingly trust thereupon, give glory to God by this their believing, yea are made thereby and esteemed the friends of God, to wit, so far as they do not frustrate, or make void the merit of their faith by the demerit and wickedness of their lives. Many other places and examples might be alleged, that demonstrate God's people always to have walked with God by faith, and not by sense: and why not then in this Mystery as well as in others? why should this Doctrine seem so strange to men of understanding and knowledge in the ways of God, considering the greatness of the Almighty, and how he vails his will and mysteries oftentimes unto us? Considering how terrible in the Old Testament he was to such as would pry into his ways and secrets further than was permitted them; how fearful the wiser sort of Jews were so to do; and lastly how answerable the practice of the universal Church of Christ hath been in this thing, and that for above sixteen hundred years, namely to walk by faith rather than by sense in this business, and to rest more upon the Word, and Power, and Truth of God, then upon our own reason or understanding. Consider I pray what the Prophet saith, Isa 7.9. If ye will not believe, surely you shall not be established. By reason of unbelief was that Lord, on whose hand the King leaned, trodden to death in the gate of Samaria, 2 Kings 7.20. A believing heart is the root of all spiritual excellency and acceptableness with God; and it is the character which he gives them. I take to witness, saith God, 2 Esdras 1.37. the grace of the people to come, (meaning the Christians, such as should believe in the Messiah that was to come) whose little ones, saith he, rejoice in gladness, and though they have not seen me with bodily eyes, yet in spirit they believe the things that I say. Hitherto also comes that saying of our Lord to St. Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou believest; but blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed, John 20.29. Wherefore let us not dispute, but rather pray to the Almighty to captivate our understandings to the obedience of Faith, that we may here, in reverence to his word, be willing to believe what we do not see, that so hereafter, in the blissful vision of his glory, we may be admitted to see more than we do now believe.  
And besides all this, the Prophetical Types and Shadows of the Sacrifices in the Law, as also the Prophetical say, or predictions of the Prophets, concerning somewhat of greater worth and far exceeding the dignity of Mosaical Sacrifices, that should be sacrificed and eaten under the Gospel, are a further and undeniable argument, that the Eucharist is not a figure only of Christ's Body, but his very real and true Body. 'Tis granted by all, at least by the most learned and ingenuous amongst Protestants, to wit, by all such as pretend any show of respect to Antiquity, that those Prophecies of the old Testament, do point at the Eucharist, or Sacrament of Christ's Body in the new. Now if the Sacramentarian opinion be true, to wit, that the Bread of the Eucharist remains still, even after Consecration, in truth and substance but a morsel of Bread, and nothing else, and the Wine, after Consecration, nothing but mere Wine, how is the Sacrament of the Eucharist a more noble and excellent thing, than were the Sacraments and Sacrifices of the Jews? for they also were no less signs and figures of Christ's Body, than the Bread of the Eucharist is. Yea who sees not, that the Jewish Sacrifices upon this supposition, viz. that the Eucharistical Bread is indeed nothing but Bread, and the Eucharistical Wine nothing but Wine; I say, who seethe not upon this supposition, that the Jewish Sacrifices far exceeded the Christians in the worth and dignity of the things sacrificed? for example, the Paschal Lamb, was it not a more excellent Sacrifice in its own nature, than a piece of bare Bread? But now Malachy prophesieth that under the new Law should that more excellent Sacrifice be. He prophesieth that God would reject and cast away the Priesthood and Sacrifices of the Jews, and instead of them, would have another more pure and more excellent Sacrifice: and that not offered in Jerusalem only, or in any one place, or city of the world, but all the world over, from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof, Mal. 1.11. Neither can this be any other but the Body of our Lord offered upon the Altar; which upon the rejection of Moses daily Sacrifice, was to come in place and to be accepted of God, according to that of the Psalmist, speaking in the person of Christ, Burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou wouldst not have, but a Body thou hast fitted me, Psal. 40.6. according to the Translation of the Septuagint; which St. Paul likewise followeth, leaving the Hebrew, Hebr. 10.5. Doubtless by virtue of the word of God in the Priest's mouth, this Body is fitted both for a Sacrament, and also a Sacrifice, after the order of Melchisedech: who being the firstborn of a great and honourable family in Salem, was according to the custom of that age, both Prince and Priest there, as Jethro was in Midian, Exod. 18.1. And so likewise our Lord, being the firstborn among many Brethren, Rom. 8.29. and the firstborn of every creature, as he is called, Colos. 1.15. is therefore by God the Father, and that by an oath, ordained a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech: whose sacrifice, as the learned affirm, was Bread and Wine first offered in sacrifice to God, and afterwards eaten by such as participated of the sacrifices, as appears, Gen. 14. where it is not improbably thought, that with part of the Bread and Wine which Melchisedech brought forth, as a Priest of the most high God, he refreshed Abraham returning from the slaughter of the four Kings. So that as the Aaronical, or Mosaical sacrifices of Beasts were types and figures of our Lords Bloody sacrifice of himself upon the Cross for the sins of the world; so in like manner was Melchisedeches sacrifice in Bread and Wine a figure of our Lords unbloudy sacrificing of himself upon the Altar for the Church. Which unbloudy Sacrifice our Lord did institute and ordain at his last Supper, when he said to his Apostles, Do this, Luke 22.19. and which Action of our Saviour, was by the Apostles, who were eye-witnesses thereof, celebrated in like manner throughout the world, to wit, in all parts and in all places where they preached the Gospel; and hath been ever since continued in the universal Church to this day.  
The word which our Translation reads ministering, Acts 13.2. as the learned affirm, signifies in the Greek properly sacrificing, and so 'tis translated by Erasmus; As they were sacrificing to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said, Separate unto me Saul and Barnabas. The Sacrifice of the Cross was a bloody and general Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world: but this of the Altar is unbloudy, and more particular for the Church, but most especially for those members of the Church for whom in particular it is offered. The Jews had their Meat-offerings, and Drink-offerings, and Bloody Sacrifices; to which Christ answereth. Upon the Cross he was that Bloody Sacrifice, which fulfilleth that which was typified by those bloody Sacrifices of the Beasts that were killed: upon the Altar he is the unbloudy Sacrifice, and fulfilleth the Types of those Sacrifices, wherein there was no shedding of blood; such as were the Meat-offerings, and Drink-offerings, and the like. The Paschal Lamb was in a divers respect both a bloody Sacrifice, and also an unbloudy; and therefore our Saviour answers the Type of it in both respects. As it was a Lamb taken out of the flock and killed, and the blood sprinkled upon the door-posts; so it was a bloody Sacrifice; and so our Saviour fulfils the Type of it by the offering of himself up to death upon the Cross: but as it was to be roasted afterward with fire, and the flesh eaten within the house, Exod. 12.7, 8. it is unbloudy, and a Type of the Sacrifice of the Altar, which is eaten within the House, that is to say, within the Church, by the Members of the Church only; Jews and Gentiles, with all Excommunicated persons, Heretics, Schismatics, and the like, being excluded and not permitted to partake thereof. Also to the great comfort of all Catholic Christians, the general Sacrifice of the Cross is applied particularly, in the Sacrifice of the Altar, to the Church and to the true members thereof, for whom in special it is offered. This, I say, is a great and unspeakable comfort and benefit; here doth our Lord meet with us. God commanding the Jews to offer the Sacrifices of Beasts at the door of the Tabernacle, said, that he would there meet with them, Exod. 29.43. Certainly this was a great comfort to the Jew; but▪ hath not the Christian as great? yes certainly, and far greater. If he come as he ought, well prepared to the Altar of God, if his hands be cleansed in innocency, and his heart purified from the conscience of sin through faith and true repentance, he comes (as the Apostle Paul saith, Heb 4.16.) and that with boldness, or great confidence, unto the throne of grace, and findeth help in time of need. There doth our Lord vouchsafe to meet with us (Catholic Christians) not by virtue of the blood of Bulls and of Beasts, in which the Father said, he had no pleasure; but by virtue of his own blood, in which Sacrifice the Father testifieth that he was well pleased.  offerings and Sacrifices, saith the Psalmist, thou hadst no pleasure in; but then saith the Son, Lo I come, to do thy will, O God, as it followeth in the Psalm last cited.  
O thou Christian, come thou then to this Altar in faith, come in innocency, come in charity, come prepared, come reverently: serve the Lord with trembling, and rejoice with fear; for our God is a consuming fire. We have an Altar, saith the Apostle, Heb. 13.10. of which they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle, meaning the Jew; among whom though the Priests might eat of some offerings, yet they might not eat of the Sin-offering; that was to be burnt without the gate, Leu. 4.12. & 6.30. But the Christian Law offereth more Grace. Our Lord, who was made an offering for sin, Esay 53. saith to all, both Priests and People, that except they eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, they cannot have life: yet he was an offering for sin, and also suffered without the gate of Jerusalem, as the Sin-offering was commanded to be burnt without the gate, of which the Priests of Moses might not eat: but the Christian may eat of the Sin-offering of Christ's Body; yea he must eat of it, if he will have life and benefit by it. Therefore it is, that the Apostle saith of Christians, that they have such an Altar, (viz. an Altar of a sin-offering) as the Jewish servitors of the Tabernacle were not allowed to partake of. And by this we may see, that all mysteries whatsoever covered in the Law under Types and Shadows, (whether Burnt-offerings, Meat-offerings, Free-will-offerings, Heave-offerings, yea the very Sin-offering itself, with the Altars both within the Veil and without) have all relation to Christ's Sufferings, Passion, and Death, commemorated at the Christian Altar. And not only these, but the Mercy-seat also, the Ark, which even under the Law to pry into was present death, do all contain some mystery of Christ, and which always required them not to be looked into by the eye of sense, but the eye of faith. There the Cherubims stand over the Mercy-seat, their faces looking down upon it, but their wings spread out, Exod. 25.18, 19, 20. signifying that under a Type, which the Apostle St. Peter plainly expresseth, 1 Pet. 1.12. namely, that the very Angels themselves desire to look into, and to be made acquainted with the great mysteries of God revealed in Christ: the mysteries, I say, which were hid in God from the beginning, and by his Apostles and Prophets made known unto his Church, and by the Church unto the Angels themselves, even to the highest Principalities and Powers in heavenly places, Ephes. 3.9, 10. For they are all of them by office ministering Spirits, sent out to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, that is, for the service and Protection of the Church, Heb. 1.14.  
In the Church, saith the Apostle, Ephes. 3.21. Glory shall be given to God throughout all ages: whence it appears, that there is not one age, or ever shall be, wherein the Church of God is not in being: in this Church are the mysteries of Christianity celebrated, but more especially, as the Fathers commonly teach, in the adorable Sacrifice of the Altar: great mysteries indeed, and for the right understanding of which, faith and not sense, hath its exercise: here we must believe, not reason and dispute from principles of Sense, Nature, and Philosophy: That is a thing, which the Apostle forbids and forewarns us of, Colos. 2.8. We must believe, I say, that the Bread duly consecrated is no longer Bread, but that very Body of Christ, which God the Father Almighty hath fitted, and ordained to be a daily Sacrifice, offered up to God after the order of Melchisedech, according as it is written of Christ, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech, Psal. 110.4. And when this Sacrifice totally and unversally ceaseth, than the world shall end, as it is written in Dan. 9.27. compared with Matth. 24.15. But before this can be, saith our Lord, the Gospel must be preached for a Testimony in all Nations, and then shall the end come. Therefore, saith Christ, when you see the Prophecy of Daniel come to pass, then let him that readeth, understand, for the end is near. Hitherto comes that saying of the Jewish Rabbins, noted by Ainsworth on Leviticus, Chap. 5. v. 15. Our wise men have said, say the Rabbins, that for the service of the Sacrifice the world doth continue: whence it may be collected, that if the daily Sacrifice of Christ's Body, (of which the Jewish Sacrifices were but Types and Shadows) if that comes once to be totally and universally abolished, the world will quickly be at an end. Moreover, the same Rabbins affirm, that the mysteries contained in their Sacrifices, are so great, that the meaning of them cannot be fully attained in this world; and therefore, saith Mr. Ainsworth, they advise people not to be over curious to pry into them presumptuously, lest God break out upon them, as he threatneth to do, Exod. 19.12, 24. Thou shalt, saith God to Moses, set bounds, that the people go not up into the mount: and it was of such consequence, that the people might not presume to pry, that God said the second and third time to Moses Go down, and charge the people, that they break not thorough to gaze, and I break out upon them, and many perish, ver. 21. The Bethshemites but only for looking into the Ark, or Chest wherein the Book of the Law was kept, God smote of the people no less than fifty thousand and seventy men, 1 Sam. 6.19. Surely a terrible warning this must be to us, if we duly consider it.  
By all which we may see, (as the same Aynsworth also notes) that inquisitive curiosity to have humane Reason and Sense fully satisfied touching the mysteries of Religion, is a thing forbidden by God. Men must walk by faith in the things of God, and not by sight, 2 Cor. 5.7. which considered, I leave it to you, and to all rational and indifferent men whatsoever, whether it be not safer, in this great mystery of Christ's Body on the Altar, whether it be not safer (I say) with the whole Christian world of all ages, to Believe and Adore though contrary to sense, rather than to pry and examine by sense, or the dictates of carnal reason. For in Believing and Adoring I follow the pure word of God both of the Old and New Testament; I follow the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers, the Decrees of Counsels, and constant practice of the universal Church, and that from the one end of heaven to the other. Is it not safer (think you) to follow all these sure and infallible Guides, rather than (contrary to all these) to follow the conjectures of my own brain, or at best of some other particular Sect-master, or Sect-masters? one of these three of necessity I must follow: either the Catholic Church with the Ancient Fathers and lawful Pastors of it; or else some particular Sect-master, or Sect-masters, divided from the Church, and teaching contrary to the Church's sense; or lastly my own brain, my own private reason, spirit, or what else you will call it: for a fourth I cannot find. And as such a Sect-master is followed in this world, so let his followers make their account, that they shall stand with him before the judgement-seat of Christ; they shall not be separated for ever: whom they loved to follow here in this world, contrary to duty, and contrary to the ordinance of Christ, (who commands us to hear his Church, and not particular Sect-masters, either departed or cut off from the Church) they shall be made to follow and keep company with, against their wills, in the next life, in eternal flames and miseries. I wish all would consider this, who so easily put themselves under the tuition of every private and presumptuous Sect-master, that they would consider it, I say, and return in time to the obedience and communion of the Catholic Church, which only hath lawful Authority to teach them, and also a faithful promise from Christ to teach them Truth, Matth. 28.20. John 14.16, 17.  
And beside all this, is it not even miraculous to consider, that the universal Church, all Ancient Fathers, both in and out of Counsels, and that in all ages since Christ, should believe and hold a thing so repugnant and absurd to sense and all humane reason, as Sectaries make the Faith of Catholics in this point seem to be? and that the generation of Catholics should do and believe this from age to age to almost seventeen hundred years; and this without any self or byends, of profit, pleasure, honour, or other interest whatsoever, but purely for conscience sake, and out of obedience to God's word, and to the Catholic Doctrine of Christianity? This certainly may seem no less than a miracle in our eyes; we must confess the finger of God, and his special Providence to be in it, unless we be very partial: especially if on the other side we do but consider, how every other Sect that hath risen, and upon pretence of reforming abuses and errors, hath ever persecuted the Mother-Church, really for her not complying with them in their greater Errors; (as for example, the Arians in that of the Trinity, the Calvinists in that of the Eucharist, etc. endeavouring still to make the Church forsake her first Faith, and comply with them in their following of sense and humane reason contrary unto Faith) I say, if we do but consider, how short-lived and how little or nothing prevailing▪ both these and all other Sects have been; how they have been able to do nothing, but only to procure disturbance and persecution to good Christians in some particular parts of the Church, we must needs more clearly see and acknowledge the hand of God in it; and that as it was their intent indeed, and endeavour to disturb and destroy, so God's intent and purpose was to purify his Church thereby, and to purge it of Hypocrites and Time-servers, and such like dross. St. Austin expresseth the evil practices of these men by the similitude of barking Dogs; They bark (saith he in his Book de Vtilit. cred. cap. 17. speaking of Heretics and Sectaries) They bark perpetually against the Apostolic Chair, but all in vain. Th●y effect nothing by their barking. Yea he confesseth that even himself was a Barker too, all the time that he was a Manichean, that is, he was one that exercised the patience of true Christians by detraction and other injurious treating of them. St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. 11.19. There must be Heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest: and for that reason God permitteth some Heresies and Sects, as it were, to reign and carry all before them for a time. By false Teachers, saith Moses, Deut. 13.1, 2, 3, 4. God proveth you, whether ye will cleave unto the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your souls. Nevertheless they also in time, declining the infallible rule of Faith, which is the Authority and Tradition of the Catholic Church, and refusing to be obedient, and to captivate their understanding to the high mysteries of Faith, but following humane reason and their own private sense, have vanished and come to nothing. All their wit, and worldly glory, and power, and interest, and learning, could not preserve them from the contempt and violence of some contrary Sect.  
Witness the late Protestant Church of England. How was it it established and secured, as to all humane judgement, from all danger, and from all fear of being so suddenly rooted up! How was the Government thereof settled by Bishops, confirmed by Law, and countenanced by the State! Their form of Ordination, Articles, Sacraments, Liturgy, and their whole order of Worship, so regulated, and so ratified both by the Prince and State, that nothing could seem to be desired more. Yet because it was all of private judgement, all differing or contrary to the Tradition of the Catholic Church, and done either out of hatred, or contempt, or contradiction to the Apostolic Sea, whose Authority is the root and fountain of all true Christian Ecclesiastical Unity, how suddenly is her day come! what a strange, unexpected, unfeared judgement hath taken her away in the height of her worldly glory! For noncompliance she persecuted the children of her Mother-Church even to blood, imprisoning multitudes of them unto death; but as for her Priests, hanging, and drawing, and quartering them, as Traitors and the most infamous of all sorts of Malefactors whatsoever, and setting their flesh upon poles, to be meat for the fowls of the air, and permitting none to bury them; and taking Two of Three parts of the Lands and goods of the Common people, that professed themselves Catholics. But O ye, stand now amazed, and behold how she is judged. She that was thus bottomed, strengthened, and established in her way of Religion and Church-government, she that sat as Queen, and said in her heart, I shall see no widowhood, what is become of her? where is she to be found in the whole earth? in less space than one hundred of years, she is both risen and fallen, and come to nothing: and though her sin in the punishment thereof be even written upon her forehead, yet she reputes not, but like the strange woman in the Proverbs, she wipes her mouth and saith, I have not sinned, I have done no ill, I am not either Heretic or Scismatique. Our original Ordination was good; our compliance with Princes for our safety is warranted by the examples of some other Nations; though we have dissented from our Mother-Church and from all the world beside, in doctrine, in ordination of Priesthood, in a Leiturgy and worshipping of God, in the Sacraments and Church-government; yet all this is nothing, so long as (our selves being judges) we are one in Fundamentals, we are neither Schismatics, nor Heretics, how much soever we be outwardly cast down. Thus they seem to plead. But O miserable Apology! how unable is it to justify, or palliate Schism, especially the Schism of them, who for so many years together have laboured the extirpation of that Church, which first brought them off from Paganism to Christianity! Consider this I pray, ye that are now upon the stage, that ye act not against God's Church. Destroy it you cannot; persecute it, trouble and afflict it you may for a time, so long as it pleases God to permit you; but you shall sooner destroy yourselves, than it. Remember what befell Pharaoh, who thought by oppression to keep Israel low and weak; but his wisdom proved folly. What became of Jeroboams wisdom, 1 Kings 12. though he was made a King of the ten Tribes, yet he ought not to have altered God's worship? 'Tis true, in doing so, his policy aimed only at his own safety, but yet that proved his ruin.  
And for you my friends, (the Catholics of this Nation) who have solemnly in your Baptism promised and professed to believe the Articles of Christian Religion, and the Catholic Church; as also to forsake all that appertains to the lust of the flesh, to the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, which are not of the Father, but of the Devil, 1 John 2.16. in this Covenant be ye faithful to the death. The time we have to labour for Eternity is short; but a short moment: even as a drop of a bucket to the whole ocean se●, and one gravel stone in comparison of the sands upon the sea shore, so are a thousand, yea a thousand thousands of years, to the days of Eternity. Therefore, O my soul. saith Esdras, 2 Esdras 8.4, 5. swallow down understanding, and devour wisdom; for thou hast no longer time, then only to live, wherein thou must gain eternity. Wherefore, as the Preacher saith, Eccles. 9.10. whatsoever thy hand hath found to do (to wit, of good) do it with all thy might; for there is no labouring in the grave. Let us now resolutely and courageously resign up ourselves to all manner of afflictions for heaven's sake; and by so doing lay hold of eternal life: let us not let slip any opportunity; for in that way we shall best gather to ourselves treasures of glory: we may think ourselves happy, as many of us, as in this kind and for this cause, suffer persecution. Divers Catholic Countries want this high favour from God, which we in England have. Such in other countries', as fix their eyes upon eternity, force themselves to long and sharp Penances, in Fast, Watch, hard Labour, austere Discipline, with other mortifications of the flesh: but instead of these, we in England have countrymen and neighbours, persecuting us to the loss of goods, liberty, and life, sometimes. O, let us be content, and account, that this time is our Fair and Market; our Mart-time to get both precious, glorious, and durable riches to eternity. And as for those, who are our Persecutors, let us mourn and pray for them. Our Lord said to the daughters of Jerusalem, Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. So I would to God, these would pity themselves, more than they pity those whom they persecute; which yet sometimes they seem to do. Let us pray earnestly for them, and fear, that it is for some great foregoing sins, still aggravated and continued by our own iniquities, that hath so incensed and moved the merciful God to permit our neighbours to be our persecuters, and that God uses them as his Battle-ax, as the Rod of his wrath, and the Staff of his indignation, to punish Hypocrites, but to purge and purify those whom he loves. O 'tis a woeful condition, that such our persecuters are in; let us pray hearty for them for their Conversion and amendment, before the Altar of our God; that it would please the merciful God of all flesh, and Father of Spirits, to illuminate those that live out of the Church, seriously to apprehend the danger of their estate, and the great importance of eternal Salvation; and that it would please the Almighty to incline the hearts of our Magistrates, both rightly to understand our Religion, and impartially to consider our Sufferings: and however they oppress and persecute us, yet, O Lord, make us ever with exact fidelity to perform our duties to them. And also let us pray, that God would be pleased to assuage his anger towards our Nation; to forgive the sins of our forefathers and ours, and to turn away his wrath from us their postetity; to deliver the ignorant from being any longer seduced by false Teachers, and the learned from being misled by their worldly interests and passions; and the whole Nation from the Spirit of Contradiction, Licentiousness and Discord; that instead of so many Sects, Divisions and changes of Religion, they may all again be restored to that One True Religion, and to that unity of Mind, and steadiness of Faith, and tranquillity of Conscience, which is not where else to be sought, no where else to be found, but in the Communion of God's Church, nor by any other means to be attained, but by the conduct of his Grace.  
Amen.   

An Appendix to the foregoing Discourse, in Answer to an Objection, etc.  
Dear Friend,  
WHereas you object, that Tertullian, and some other of the Arcients, do call the Symbols of Bread and Wine after Consecration, Figures only; I wonder that you being a knowing man in these matters, should thus speak. That they call them Figures sometimes it's confessed; and so do divers Catholic Writers of present times, as you may see in Bellarmin. (Libr. 1. de Sacram. Eucharist. cap. 5) but that they called, or esteemed, them Figures only and no more, or Figures without the Substance, as Protestants do, is denied. The Holy Scripture calls the Son (Heb. 1.3.) the express Image, or Figure, of his Father's Substance, or Person: Is he not therefore of the same Substance, and Divine Nature with the Father? The Quakers indeed understand and esteem him only a Figure, because of this Text: but the Church and all true Christians believe otherwise, namely, that though he be the Figure of God, yet he is also in the verity of his own Person true and eternal God; and that in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Col. 2.9. And therefore for you to say, that the Fathers esteemed the Sacrament duly consecrated to be a Figure only of Christ's Body, is a great mistake and undervaluing of the Father's Judgements; supposing them to be so stupid, that they should both Adore, and also Offer up to God, as a Sacrifice of such Divine Virtue and Merit, and of so Supreme and Superlative Excellency above all other Sacrifices whatsoever that had been offered before it, that which was in itself but a piece of Bread, a thing so much inferior even to the meanest of the Jewish Sacrifices. I say, that the Fathers should thus Magnify and Adore that which they believed to be nothing else but a piece of bread, is the greatest absurdity that can be imposed upon men. But you will not believe (perhaps) that the Fathers Adored the Sacrament. To convince you of this, I shall allege some few examples (of many) out of their Works; by which it will undeniably appear, what both their judgement and practice was concerning this matter.  
First, St. Augustin (Epist. 118.) saith, It is he the Apostle saith shall be damned, who doth not with SINGULAR VENERATION, or Adoration, make a difference betwixt this meat and all other meats. And again (upon the 98. Psalms) No man, saith he, eateth this Sacrament, but first he Adoreth it. Secondly, St. Ambrose (lib. 3. cap. 12. de Spir. Sanct.) We ADORE (saith he) the flesh of Christ in the Mysteries. Thirdly, St. chrysostom Homil. 24. in 1. ad Cor. We ADORE him on the Altar, as the Wisemen did in the Manger, Matth. 2.11. Fourthly, St. Gregory Nazianzen (in Epitaph. Gorgon.) professeth of his Devout and Faithful Sister Gorgonia, that being in a distress she ran to the Church, and casting herself down before the Altar, invocated, or called upon Christ who is adored, or worshipped, thereon. Fifthly, Theodoret. (dial. 2. entitled Inconfusus) The Mystical Symbols (saith he) are ADORED, as being in truth the things they are believed to be, to wit, the Body and Blood of Christ. Lastly, St. Dennis Areopagita, Scholar of the Apostles themselves, (Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. 3. part. 3.) makes a solemn Prayer expressly to the Blessed Sacrament upon the Altar; and generally all the Ancient Leiturgies of the Church do show, that at the time of Elevation, and whensoever the Consecrated Symbols were openly presented, especially before Receiving, the custom of the Church was with one voice to make their prayers unto it, in these and the like words; Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us; God be merciful to us sinners; Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof, etc. Many other examples might be produced, but these may suffice to show how unreasonable your conceit is, that in the Father's opinion the Bread and Wine were but bare Figures, and did not really contain the very Substance of Christ's Body and Blood.  
Wherefore, my Friend, in the depth of your Solitude and nightly Meditations considerately think upon the do of these Ancient Fathers. Shall we say with Protestants, that they adored Bread, as the old Ethniques said, that the Christians did eat Man's flesh at their solemn Meetings? which though it were a Calumny, in the sense that the Heathens charged it upon them, yet 'tis certain it took its rise from the Belief which Christians were known to have concerning the Blessed Eucharist, namely that it was Christ's Flesh and Blood in deed and truth, though after a divine and incomprehensible manner, and not only a Figure of them. I told you before, that St. Augustin, (lib. 6. Confess. cap. 3.) for the nine years in which he was a Manichaean Heretic, confesseth of himself, that he did nothing but clamour and bark against the Church. But O Lord (saith he, being now converted from that Heresy) I find to my great comfort, that I barked not, all that time, so much against the Catholic Faith, as against certain vain Fancies, which my carnal thoughts and conceptions had fixed to the Faith. And are not Protestants most patently guilty of the same Frenzy? Do they any thing else, but form to themselves false conceptions of the Doctrine of Catholics and of the Catholic Church, and then rail at it? But let us pray, that with St. Augustin they may be converted from this great evil. Let us consider also, whether it be not much more safe, to follow the plain words of Christ, which say, This is my Body; and the Universal Church, which hath always understood those words in their plain and literal sense: then either the private and contrary expositions of Heretics, or the suggestion of your own natural sense and reason, against the words of Christ, and against the universal Belief of his Church, in a business of such sublime and high Mystery; wherein it is far better, and far more agreeable to the humility of Christians, to captivate our understandings (as the Apostle saith) to the obedience of Faith. When we were in the Loins of our first Parent Adam, we lost Paradise by following our carnal sense and reason in the eating of that forbidden Fruit: is it any more than equity then, that upon God's command, and in full Belief of his Word, we should renounce (as it were) our reason for a time, and resign up our natural understandings unto God, to regain Paradise? Reflect, I pray, attentively upon those places of the Fathers, which you think make most for your opinion, viz. That the Symbols of Bread and Wine are but mere Figures, and see, if they be not capable of a fair and reasonable Interpretation to the contrary, and more agreeable to the Catholic Doctrine. In times before any controversy about the Eucharist was moved, the Fathers, conscious to themselves of their own true sense and meaning, took a liberty of speaking sometimes, and uttered some things in a dubious and ambiguous manner of expression, at least as may seem so to us, whose judgements are for the most part biased, & set one way more than another, by reason of Controversy. There is scarce any Heresy against the Truth of Christian Religion, but if we will be partial Interpreters of the Fathers, we may find some passages in them, that through this foresaid liberty and ambiguity of speech, may seem to favour it. But then let us be so equal and indifferent, as to consider the many and more plain passages, which the same Fathers, and others contemporary to them, have left us in their writings to the contrary, and in full assertion of the Catholic Truth; and our minds will quickly be satisfied: especially if we cast into the Balance the perpetual practice, not only of the Ancient Fathers themselves, but even of all the Churches upon Earth, concerning the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.  
Declare therefore, if you can, (for I even challenge you to it) Declare, I say, if you can in all your reading, what one Orthodox Father, or any other Author of good name in the Church of God, what one General Council, what one particular Synod, or National Church upon Earth, for the space of 1500. years after Christ, did so Officiate or celebrate the Holy Eucharist upon a Table, as that they held it to be a mere Figure, or Sacramental sign, only signifying Christ's Body and Blood unto us, as Protestants hold, and not really being, or not really containing, or not really exhibiting and conveying it in verity and Substance to us; or that they denied the real Sacrifice of Christ's Body in the Eucharist, upon a true, proper, and real Altar. A Sacrifice, I say, in itself, and according to the original Institution thereof, generally Propitiatory for all mankind, but more particularly effectual for the Church, and those for whom it is specially offered, or that by special Faith and Devotion do make themselves capable of the Actual Benefit and Virtue of it.  
But if this be too hard, and cannot be showed, then (because the weal of Eternity is a matter of so great consequence; and this Ordinance of the daily Sacrifice a thing of so great efficacy and value, that (as Mr. Aynsworth notes upon Levit. 5.15.) the wisest among the Jews held, that the world did continue and was upheld by it; and that the general (though not total) abolishing thereof amongst Christians is to be the work of that great enemy of our Lord, (Antichrist) Matth 24.15. Mark 13.14. Dan. 9.27. (according to the judgement and consent of the Fathers) in consideration, I say, of these things, I would gladly have it shown, as well by the Testimony of God's Holy Word, as by the judgement and belief of some Orthodox Church, Council, or Synod, within the time above specified, how my poor soul may hope to be saved, if I leave the universal way and rule of all good Christians, which is Tradition and the continued practice of Christ's Catholic Church, and follow the enemies and opposers thereof in any of their private and contrary paths.  
Lastly, because by multitude of words Truth may be darkened, Job 38.2. I desire, that the Answer which shall be given to these demands, may be plain, perspicuous, and direct to the purpose; without evasions and shift to any other matter, without any vain and unnecessary Circumlocutions of words, without Scholastical Distinctions, or any kind of that cunning craftiness of speech and reasoning, which is contrary to the simplicity of true believing, condemned by the Apostle Ephes. 4.14. and fit for nothing, but to abuse and misled simple and sincere minds into error: according as in all Ages it may be observed to have been the practice of false Teachers, and their chief engine, wherewith to entangle and deceive souls. The wise man doth well describe them, Prov. 2.15. Their ways, saith he, are crooked,— like the way of a Serpent upon a rock, Prov. 30.19. ever inconstant and varying, like that of the wanton woman, who hath forsaken the guide of her youth. So these forsake their Mother the only True Church of Christ; and run gadding, every one after their own Fancies and groundless Imaginations. But let them wander alone. I desire, I say, that the Answer to these Queries be punctual and downright to the matter, that is, having named the Author, and set down his words truly and faithfully, that you use no enlargement at all upon them, at least not further than is necessary for the clear explication of his meaning, and withal giving your Reasons in brief. Thus doing, Sir, you shall much oblige your faithful Friend, etc.  
FINIS.