XIII.

not thefe Things proper Objects of our Senfes? Or can any two Things be ima- SERM. gined more different and more easy to be diftinguifh'd from each other, than a little Piece of Bread, and the whole Body of a Man in its full Proportion and Dimenfions? If our Senfes are not to be trusted in fo plain a Cafe, when are they to be trufted? Or how can we ever be certain of any Thing which is the Object of Senfe? How, for Inftance, can the Pa pists ever prove to us that these Words, This is my Body, are at all in the New Teftament? The beft Evidence we can have that these Words are really in Scripture, is the Evidence of Senfe; We may fee them there if we please with our own Eyes. But the Romanifts cannot in Reafon demand of us to accept of this Evidence, becaufe in the Cafe before us they require us to disbelieve the concurrent Testimony of four Senfes out of five.

Again, THE Proof of the Chriftian Religion depends upon the Evidence of Senfe. For we therefore believe the

SERM.

XIII.

Chriftian Religion to be true, because it
was confirm'd by a great Number of
Miracles wrought in the Prefence of ma-
ny Eye-witnesses, whofe Teftimony hath
been faithfully recorded and tranfmitted
to Pofterity. So that we cannot believe
the Chriftian Religion to be true, till it
is granted that our Senfes are to be cre-
dited, And if our Senfes are to be credi-
ted, then Tranfubftantiation is certainly
falfe. So that the Romanifts do moft
abfurdly go about to perfwade us of the
Truth of Tranfubftantiation by an Argu-
ment, which if it be once allow'd to be
good, deftroys the Truth of the whole
Chriftian Religion, of which they say
Tranfubftantiation is a Part.

BUT further, this Doctrine is not only
contrary to Senfe and Reafon, but to the
very Words of Scripture. For our blef
fed Lord, when he diftributed the Cup
to his Difciples, faying, Drink ye all of
it, for this is my Blood; adds, But I fay
unto you, I will not drink henceforth of
this Fruit of the Vine, until that Day
when I drink it new with you in my

Father's

Father's Kingdom. Whence it is clear,
that that which our Saviour commanded
his Apoftles to drink was the Fruit of the
Vine. In like manner St. Paul calls that
which we eat in the Sacrament Bread;
We are all, fays he, in the Verfe imme-
diately following my Text, Partakers of
that one Bread. And in the next Chap-
ter he calls it Bread three times in the
compafs of three Verfes. As often as
ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup, ye
do fhew the Lord's Death till he come.
Wherefore whofoever fhall eat this Bread
and drink this Cup of the Lord unwor-
thily, fhall be guilty of the Body and
Blood of the Lord. But let a Man exa-
mine himself, and fo let him eat of that
Bread, and drink of that Cup. From all
which Paffages of Scripture it is evident,
that the Euchariftical Bread and Wine
do not by Confecration lofe their former
Nature, but are at the very Time when
they are receiv'd by the Communicants
true Bread and Wine, and confequently
are not fubftantially chang'd into the
Natural Body and Blood of Chrift.
Bb

THAT

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XIII.

SERM.
XIII.

THAT the Primitive Chriftians acknow. ledged no fubftantial Change of the Eu chariftical Elements may be proved by a multitude of plain Teftimonies taken from the Writings of the antient Fathers *. To cite them all would be endless. I fhall therefore only point out fome few of thofe numerous Paffages, and content myself with obferving from them, that the antient Chriftians were fo far from believing the Eucharift to be literally Chrift's Body and Blood, that they thought it would have been a heinous Impiety to eat the Natural Body of Chrift, and to drink his Blood; and believ❜d that the Euchariftical Bread and Wine are therefore called the Body and Blood of Chrift, because they are Figures, Reprefentatives and Memorials of his Body and Blood. And indeed this Figure of Speech is frequently ufed by the Penmen of Holy Scripture as well as by

other

* Vide apud Irenæi fragmenta, p. 469. Edit. Grabii. Orig. Hom. in Levit. Auguftinus de Dot, Chriftiana Lib. 3. Tertullianus in Lib 4to. adverf. Marcionem. Cypriani Epift. 63.

other Writers. Jofeph expounding the Dreams of Pharaoh's Servants, and of Pharaoh himself, fays, The three Branches are three Days, and the three Baskets

輯

are three Days; the feven Kine are feven Years, and the feven Ears of Corn are feven Years. Our bleffed Lord explaining the Parable of the Seed and of the Tares, fays, The Seed is the Word, the Field is the World, the Reapers are the Angels, the Harveft is the End of the World: And of Himfelf he fays, I am the Way, the Door, the true Vine. St. Paul in the beginning of this very Chapter affures us, That the Ifraelites drank of that Rock which followed them, and that that Rock was Chrift. Innumerable Inftances of this kind might be produced. But that which comes very near to our Purpofe is, That this Way of Speaking was used by the Jews at the Celebration of their Paffover; immediately after which, and in the Room of which the Chriftian Eucharift was inftituted. At the Eating the Paffover they ufed this Form of Worde, This Paffover Bb 2

is

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XIII.