ART. presented in every place where a true consecration is made. XXVIII. And though it is in heaven in an extended state, as all other bodies are, yet they think that extension may be separated from matter, as well as the other appearances or accidents are believed to be separated from it. And whereas our souls are believed to be so in our bodies, that though the whole soul is in the whole body, yet all the soul is believed to be in every part of it; but so, that if any part of the body is separated from the rest, the soul is not divided, being one single substance, but retires back into the rest of the body: they apprehend that Christ's body is present after the manner of a spirit, without extension, or the filling of space; so that the space which the appearances possess is still a vacuum, or only filled by the accidents: for a body without extension, as they suppose Christ's body to be, can never fill up an

extension.

Christ's body in the sacrament is denominated one; yet still, as the species are broken and divided, so many new bodies are divided from one another; every crumb of bread and drop of wine that is separated from the whole, is a new body, and yet without a new miracle, all being done in consequence of the first great one that was all at once wrought.

The body of Christ continues in this state as long as the accidents remain in theirs; but how it should alter is not easy to apprehend: the corruption of all other accidents arises from a change in the common substance, out of which new accidents do arise, while the old ones vanish; but accidents without a subject may seem more fixed and stable: yet they are not so, but are as subject to corruption as other accidents are howsoever, as long as the alteration is not total; though the bread should be both musty and mouldy, and the wine both dead and sour, yet as long as the bread and wine are still so far preserved, or rather that their appearances subsist, so long the body of Christ remains: but when they are so far altered that they seem to be no more bread and wine, and that they are corrupted either in part or in whole, Christ's body is withdrawn, either in part or in whole.

It is a great miracle to make the accidents of bread and wine subsist without a subject; yet the new accidents that arise upon these accidents, such as mouldiness or sourness, come on without a miracle, but they do not know how. When the main accidents are destroyed, then the presence of Christ ceases: and a new miracle must be supposed to produce new matter, for the filling up of that space which the substance of bread and wine did formerly fill; and which was all this while possessed by the accidents. So much of the matter of this sacrament.

The form of it is in the words of consecration, which though they sound declarative, as if the thing were already done; "This is my body,' and 'This is my blood;' yet they

XXVIII.

believe them to be productive. But whereas the common ART. notion of the form of a sacrament is, that it sanctifies and applies the matter; here the former matter is so far from being consecrated by it, that it is annihilated, and new matter is not sanctified, but brought thither or produced: and whereas whensoever we say of any thing, this is, we suppose that the thing is, as we say it is, before we say it; yet here all the while that this is a saying till the last syllable is pronounced, it is not that which it is said to be, but in the minute in which the last syllable is uttered, then the change is made: and of this they are so firmly persuaded, that they do presently pay all that adoration to it, that they would pay to the person of Jesus Christ if he were visibly present: though the whole virtue of the consecration depends on the intention of a priest: so that he with a cross intention hinders all this series of miracles, as he fetches it all on, by letting his intention go along with it.*

*The adoration of the Eucharist is thus decreed by the council of Trent. 'De cultu et veneratione huic sanctissimo sacramento exhibenda.

Nullus itaque dubitandi locus relinquitur, quin omnes Christi fideles pro more in catholica ecclesia semper recepto latriæ cultum, qui vero Deo debetur, huic sanctissimo sacramento in veneratione exhibeant; neque enim ideo minus est adorandum, quod fuerit a Christo Domino, ut sumatur, institutum: nam illum eundem Deum præsentem in eo adesse credimus, quem Pater æternus introducens in orbem terrarum, dicit: Et adorent eum omnes angeli Dei.' Sessio xiii. cap. 5.

'Si quis dixerit, in sancto encharistiæ sacramento Christum unigenitum Dei filium non esse cultu latriæ, etiam externo, adorandum, atque ideo nec festiva peculiari celebritate venerandum, neque in processionibus secundum laudabilem et universalem ecclesiæ sanctæ ritum et consuetudinem, solemnitur circumgestandum, vel non publice, ut adoretur, populo proponendum, et ejus adoratores esse idololatras: anathema sit.' Sessio xiii. canon 6.

The novelty and danger of this adoration is clearly and forcibly stated in the following:

Now touching the adoration of the sacrament, Mr. Harding is not able to shew, neither any commandment of Christ, nor any word or example of the Apostles, or ancient Fathers concerning the same. It is a thing very lately devised by pope Honorius, about the year of our Lord 1226. Afterward increased by the new solemn feast of Corpus Christi day by pope Urbanus, anno 1264. And last of all confirmed for ever by multitudes of pardons in the council of Vienna by pope Clement V. anno 1310. The church of Asia and Græcia never received it until this day. The matter is great, and cannot be attempted without great danger. To give the honour of God to a creature, that is no God, it is manifest idolatry. And all idolaters, as St. John saith, shall have their portion in the lake burning with fire, and brimstone, which is the second death.'

'The greatest doctors of that side say, that, unless transubstantiation be concluded, the people cannot freely worship the sacrament, without occasion of idolatry. Now it is known that transubstantiation is a new fantasy, newly devised in the council of Lateran, (A.D. 1215) in Rome. And Doctor Tonstal saith, that before that time it was free and lawful for any man to hold the contrary. Wherefore it is likely, that before that time, there was no such adoration. Otherwise, it must needs have been with great danger of idolatry. But after that, as it is said before, pope Honorius took order and gave commandment, that the people should adore: pope Urbanus added thereto a new solemn feast of Corpus Christi day and pope Clement confirmed the same with great store of pardons. This is the antiquity and petite degree of this kind of adoration. The great danger and horror of idolatry that hereof riseth, Mr. Harding thinketh may easily be solved by the example of Rachel, and Leah: and thus he bringeth in God's mystical providence for defence of open error: and thus instead of Rachel to take Leah, and to honour a creature instead of God.

:

'Wherein it shall be necessary briefly to touch, how many ways, even by their

ART.

If it may be said of some doctrines, that the bare exposing XXVIII. them is a most effectual confutation of them; certainly that is more applicable to this, than to any other that can be imagined for though I have in stating it considered some of the most important difficulties, which are seen and confessed by the schoolmen themselves, who have poised all these with much exactness and subtilty; yet I have passed over a great many more, with which those that deal in school-divinity will find enough to exercise both their thoughts and their patience. They run out in many subtilties, concerning the accidents. both primary and secondary; concerning the ubication, the production and reproduction of bodies; concerning the penetrability of matter, and the organization of a penetrable body; concerning the way of the destruction of the species; concerning the words of consecration; concerning the water that is mixed with the wine, whether it is first changed by natural causes into wine; and since nothing but wine is transubstantiated, what becomes of such particles of water that are not turned into wine? What is the grace produced by the sacrament, what is the effect of the presence of Christ so long as he is in the body of the communicant; what is got by his presence, and what is lost by his absence? In a word, let a man read the shortest body of school-divinity that he can find, and he will see in it a vast number of other difficulties in this matter, of which their own authors are aware, which I have quite passed over. For when this doctrine fell into the hands

own doctrine, the poor simple people may be deceived, and yield the honour of God to that thing, that in their own judgment is no God. Thus therefore they say, if the priest chance to forget to put wine into the cup, and so pass over the consecration without wine: or, if the bread be made of any other than wheaten flour, which may possibly and easily happen: or, if there be so much water in quantity, that it overcome and alter the nature of the wine: or, if the wine be changed into vinegar, and therefore cannot serve to consecration: or, if there be thirteen cakes upon the table, and the priest for his consecration determine only upon twelve, in which case they say not one of them all is consecrated: or, if the priest dissemble, or leave out the words of consecration: or, if he forget it, or mind it not, or think not of it: In every one of these, and other like defects, there is nothing consecrate, and therefore the people in these cases, honouring the sacrament, by their own doctrine giveth the glory of God to a creature: which is undoubted idolatry. And that the folly thereof may the better appear, one of them writeth thus: "Quod si Sacerdos," &c. If the priest having before him sundry cakes at the time of consecration, do mind only and precisely to consecrate that only cake that he holdeth in his hand, some say, the rest be not consecrate: but say thou, as Duns saith, they be all consecrate: yea, further he saith, If the priest do precisely determine to consecrate only the one half part of the cake, and not likewise the other half, that then, the cake being whole, that one part only is consecrate, and not the other. Pope Gregory saith, If the priest be a known adulterer, or fornicator, and continue still in the same, that his blessing shall be turned into cursing: and that the people knowing his life, and nevertheless hearing his mass, commit idolatry.

• In this case standeth the simple people: so many ways and so easily they may be deceived. For notwithstanding they may, in some part, know the priest's life and open dealing, yet how can they be assured of his secret words, of his intention. of his mind, and of his will? or, if they cannot, how can they safely adore the sacrament, without doubt and danger of idolatry?' Jewel.-[ED.]

of nice and exact men, they were soon sensible of all the con- ART. sequences that must needs follow upon it, and have pursued XXVIL all these with a closeness far beyond any thing that is to be found among the writers of our side.

But that they might have a salvo for every difficulty, they framed a new model of philosophy; new theories were invented, of substances and accidents, of matter and of spirits, of extension, ubication, and impenetrability; and by the new definitions and maxims to which they accustomed men in the study of philosophy, they prepared them to swallow down all this more easily, when they should come to the study of divinity.

The infallibility of the church that had expressly defined it, was to bear a great part of the burden; if the church was infallible, and if they were that church, then it could be no longer doubted of. In dark ages miracles and visions came in abundantly to support it: in ages of more light, the infinite power of God, the words of the institution, it being the testament of our Saviour then dying, and soon after confirmed with his blood, were things of great pomp, and such as were apt to strike men that could not distinguish between the shows and the strength of arguments. But when all our senses, all our ideas of things, rise up so strongly against every part of this chain of wonders, we ought at least to expect proofs suitable to the difficulty of believing such a flat contradiction to our reasons, as well as to our senses.

We have no other notion of accidents, but that they are the different shapes or modes of matter; and that they have no being distinct from the body in which they appear: we have no other notion of a body but that it is an extended substance, made up of impenetrable parts, one without another; every one of which fills its proper space: we have no other notion of a body's being in a place but that it fills it, and is so in it as that it can be nowhere else at the same time: and though we can very easily apprehend that an infinite power can both create and annihilate beings at pleasure; yet we cannot apprehend that God does change the essences of things, and so make them to be contrary to that nature and sort of being of which he has made them.

Another argument against transubstantiation is this; God has made us capable to know and serve him: and, in order to that, he has put some senses in us, which are the conveyances of many subtile motions to our brains, that give us apprehensions of the objects which by those motions are represented

to us.

When those motions are lively, and the object is in a due distance; when we feel that neither our organs nor our faculties are under any disorder, and when the impression is clear and strong, we are determined by it; we cannot help being

ART. so.

When we see the sun risen, and all is bright about us, it XXVIII. is not possible for us to think that it is dark night; no authority can impose it on us; we are not so far the masters of our own thoughts, as to force ourselves to think it, though we would; for God has made us of such a nature, that we are determined by such an evidence, and cannot contradict it. When an object is at too great a distance, we may mistake; a weakness or an ill disposition in our sight may misrepresent it; and a false medium, water, a cloud, or a glass, may give it a tincture or cast, so that we may see cause to correct our first apprehensions, in some sensations: but when we have duly examined every thing, when we have corrected one sense by another, we grow at last to be so sure, by the constitution of that nature that God has given us, that we cannot doubt, much less believe, in contradiction to the express evidence of

our senses.

It is by this evidence only that God convinces the world of the authority of those whom he sends to speak in his name; he gives them a power to work miracles, which is an appeal to the senses of mankind; and it is the highest appeal that can be made; for those who stood out against the conviction of Christ's miracles, had no cloak for their sins. It is the utmost conviction that God offers, or that man can pretend to: from all which we must infer this, that either our senses in their clearest apprehensions, or rather representations of things, must be infallible, or we must throw up all faith and certainty; since it is not possible for us to receive the evidence that is given us of any thing but by our senses; and since we do naturally acquiesce in that evidence, we must acknowledge that God has so made us, that this is his voice in us; because it is the voice of those faculties that he has put in us; and is the only way by which we can find out truth, and be led by it: and if our faculties fail us in any one thing, so that God should reveal to us any thing, that did plainly contradict our faculties, he should thereby give us a right to disbelieve them for ever.

We

If they can mistake when they bring any object to us with the fullest evidence that they can give, we can never depend upon them, nor be certain of any thing, because they shew it. Nay, we are not and cannot be bound to believe that, nor any other revelation that God may make to convince us. can only receive a revelation by hearing or reading, by our ears or our eyes. So if any part of this revelation destroys the certainty of the evidence, that our senses, our eyes, or our ears, give us, it destroys itself: for we cannot be bound to believe it upon the evidence of our senses, if this is a part of it, that our senses are not to be trusted. Nor will this matter be healed, by saying, that certainly we must believe God more than our senses: and therefore, if he has revealed any thing to us, that is contrary to their evidence, we must as to