Captivate our Understanding in Obedience to Faith. Is there any Difficulty in Oppofition to Our Senfes, in the Doctrine of Tranfubftantiation, as infuperable, as this feems to be to our Reafon? No furely. Why fhou'd not we then equally believe both; fince they are propofed to. us upon the fame Authority, and draw a Veil over our weak Reason, and fallible Senfes, and adore what we do not Understand? As to what your Grace is pleafed to fay: Whether this bold Allegation may not influence fome Men to become Socinians, let them confider, who advance it. I beg leave to anfwer with another Quare: Whether those who charge us with advancing what your Grace calls a bold Allegation, ought not rather to Confider it? And whether those, who in all Ages fhook off the Authority of the Church, did not open a Gap, not only for the Socinians, but alfo for every other Sectarie to deny all fuch Points of Faith as they did not think to be agreeable to their Reafon?

To the Second Head, viz. That our Senfes, our Sight, Touch, Tafte, and Smell, declare and inform our Reafon, that altho' the Bread and the Wine are confecrated, yet they fill remain Bread and Wine. I answer, and fay: First, We are not to rely upon the Teftimony of our Senfes, when the Almighty Power interpofes. Secondly, The Holy Fathers of the Church warn us not to believe our Senfes, on this Subject. St. Ignatius Martyr, and Disciple of Saint John the Evangelift, tells us, that Certain Heret.cks did abstain from the Eucharift, and from the publick Service; Because they Confefs not the Eucharit to be the Flesh of our Saviour Jefus Chrift, which fuffer'd for our Sins, and which

the

the Father of his Goodness raised again from the Dead. Epift. ad Smyrn p. 7. This Holy Bishop and Martyr, did often, no doubt, receive the Holy Eucharift, he faw the Appearance of Bread and Wine in it after the Confecration as well as before. His Senfes, his Eyes, his Touch, his Smell, and Tafte did fuggeft to him, that it was ftill Bread and Wine; yet he gave no Credit to them: But, upon the Word of his divine Mafter, believed it to be the Flefh which fuffer'd for our Sins; being perfuaded that his Word wou'd never fail, and that his own Senfes might be deceived. St. Ignatius did then believe that Jefus Chrift did change the Subftance of the Bread and the Wine, into his Flesh and Blood: notwithstanding all that his Senfes cou'd fuggeft to the Contrary. St. Cyril of Jerufalem in the Place before cited warns us in more exprefs Terms, not to believe our Senfes he tells us, Chrift changed Water into Wine; and asks: Why he fhou'd not be thought worthy of Belief in changing Wine into his Blood? He tells us moreover, that under the Type or Appearance of Bread, the Body of Chrift is given to us, and under the Type of Wine his Blood; and to enforce this Doctrine. He charges us not to Judge of the Matter by our Senfes, even by the Senfe of tafting: Judge not (fays he) of the thing by the Tafte; but rather be most certainly affured by Faith, fo as to leave no Room for a Doubt, that the Body and the Blood are given to thee. And all this St. Cyril preached in his Patriarchal Church of Jerufalem about the Year 340. of. the Incarnation of Chrift; and left this Doctrine upon Record for the Inftruction of future Ages. Cou'd any Roman Catholick Divine at prefent

write or speak of Tranfubftantiation (which a your Grace is pleas'd to fay, was not known the primitive Church) in ftronger, or plainer Terms?

St. Ambrofe enforces the fame Doctrine, and tells us, we are not to feek or look for the Orde of Nature in this Myftery; but to have Re courfe to the Omnipotence of God. To perfuade us hereof, he Inftances, in the Change of Aaron's Rod into a Serpent, the Waters of Nie into Blood at the Prayer of Mofes; in the Fire coming down from Heaven, at the Words of Elias, in the Ax fwiming upon the furface of the Wa ter, at the Prayer of Elizeus, and concludes from thence, that if the Words of Men wer: of fo much Force as to work fuch Prodigies, How much more ought we to believe, that the Words ofChrift,(who cou'd make of Nothing that which was not) were able to change that which is, into that which it was not. That is, of changing the Bread and the Wine, which are extant on the Altar into his Body and Blood, which were not there before. Where was the Need of all thofe magnificent Expreffions; of all thofe fur prifing Inftances of God's Power; if the Boly and Blood of Chrift were only Typically, or Virtually, or Symbolically in the Eucharift? Is it to be imagined, that that holy and learned Bifhop wou'd have recourfe to God's Omnipo tence to explain this Myftery, If he believed it to remain Bread and Wine after the Confecration, When he might easily have told his Audience: Here is, beloved of God, a divine Ordinance, the Symbols of the Flesh aud Blood of your Saviour Fefus Chrift, which will nourish your Souls Spiritually, and will to all Intents and

Pur

Purposes convey unto you the Effects of his Paf ion and Death, being fanctified by the Word of God and our Bleffing as the Water in Baptifm bless'd by Prayer and the Word of God, conveys into you the Merits of his Paffion, fanctifies your Souls, and makes you adopted Children of God. Might not, I fay, St. Ambrofe, with all the Eafe in the World inftruct his Flock after this Manner, and make them fenfible, that as the Water of Baptifm, which is acknowledg'd to be a pure Element, fanctifies their Souls by the Inftitution of Chrift. So the Bread and the Wine in the Sacrament, convey to them the Effects of his Paffion and Death, as being his Inftitution alfo.

But does St. Ambrofe, or any of the primitive Fathers reafon after the fame Manner concerning the Eucharist, as they do concerning the Sacrament of Baptifm? Far from it. They do, indeed, teach and Infruct the People in the neceffary Preparation for Baptifm, and tell them, that Elementary Water being blefs'd by Prayer and the Word of God, does by Christ's Inftitution, cleanse them from their Sins, both Origi nal and Actual, when they are washed with, or dipped in it, in the Name of the three Perfons of the bleffed Trinity, provided the Men and Women to be thus baptized make Profeffion of the Faith of Chrift, with true forrow and Repentance for their Sins, if Perfons of Age; or if Children, by their Sureties, bating only Cafes of extream neceffity. But when they treat of the Eucharift, they hold quite another Language. They tell the People, as we find in the antient Liturgies, that all the Powers in Heaven are fummon'd to wait upon this great Myftery; that the Angels, Archangels, Thrones and Domina

tions, Cherubims, and Seraphims come down from Heaven to attend it, cover their Eyes, and Sing Allelujah. They fet before them the Words of the Inftitution. THIS IS MY BODY, &c. They tell them, that fince he had said so, it must be true; that ourSenfes may be mistaken; but that his Word cannot fail; that therefore we must believe it is his Body; and fince there appears no Change in the Species or outward Appearances, the Change muft neceffarily be in the Subftance, And to enforce this Change, they have Recourse to God's Omnipotent Power, to effect the fame; and Inftance in the moft mani. feft Miracles recorded in the Old Testament to convince them of the Truth thereof; as that of Aaron's Rod into a Serpent, of the Waters of Nile into Blood, of the Iron of the Ax fwiming on the Surface of the Water, and of the Water changed into Wine at the Wedding in Cana. Give me leave, then, My Lord, tobeg your Grace will give Glory to God, and acknowledge this great Truth, for which you have the warrant of God's Sacred Word, the Authority of the Church from it's very Infancy, the Practice of the Faithful ever fince the earlieft Ages of Chriftianity; and all this recorded, by unexceptionable Evidences in the Cleareft and ftrongest Terms that Words can exprefs.

St. John Chryfoftom, in the Place cited before, holds the very fame Language as the reft of the antient Fathers. He quotes the Words of Christ: THIS IS MY BODY. He bids us believe God in all things, and not refift him; Tho' what he fays may be repugnant to our Senfes, and to our Thoughts; and gives this Reafon for it: Because what God does, especially in Mysteries of