An exposition of the seven epistles to the seven churches together with a brief discourse of idolatry, with application to the Church of Rome / by Henry More ...

CHAP. III.

That the Romanists worship the Host with the highest kinde of Worship, even that of Latria, according to the Injunction of the Council of Trent; and that it is most grosse Idolatry so to doe.

1. AND having thus clearly and di∣stinctly evinced and declared what is or ought to be held Idolatry amongst Christians; let us at length take more full notice of some Parti∣culars wherein, according to these Determinations, the Church of Rome will be manifestly found guilty of

Idolatry, and that according to the very Definitions of their own Coun∣cil of Trent. As first, in the Point of the Adoration of the Host, touching which the very words of the Council are, Latriae cultum, qui vero Deo de∣betur, huic sanctissimo Sacramento in * 1.1 veneratione esse adhibendum: and a∣gain, Siquis dixerit, in sancto Eucha∣ristiae Sacramento Christum non esse cultu Latriae etiam externo adorandum, & sole••••iter circumgestandum po∣pul••que proponendum publicè ut ado∣retur, Anathema sit.

2. This confident Injunction of grosse Idolatry, as it is certainly such, is built upon their confidence of the truth of their Doctrine of Transub∣stantiation. For the Chapter of the Adoration of the Host succeeds that of Transubstantiation, as a natural, or rather necessary, Inference there∣from. Nullus itaque dubitandi locus relinquitur, &c. That is to say, The Doctrine of Transubstantiation be∣ing established, there is no Scruple left touching the Adoration of the

Host, or giving Divine Worship to the Sacrament (or Christ, as it is there called,) when it is carried about, and exposed publickly in Prócessions to the view of the people.

But the Doctrine of Transubstan∣tiation being false, it must needs fol∣low, that the giving of Divine Wor∣ship to the Host is as grosse a piece of Idolatry as ever was committed by any of the Heathens. For then their Divine Worship, even their Cultus Latriae, which is onely due to the onely-true God, is exhibited to a mere Creature, and that a very sorry one too; and therefore must be gross Idolatry, by the twenty-first and twenty-second Conclusions of the second Chapter.

3. But now, that their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is false, after we have proposed it in the very words of the Council, we shall evince by un∣deniable Demonstration. Per conse∣crationem * 1.2 Panis & Vini conversionem fieri totius substantiae Panis in substan∣tiam Corporis Christi, & totius sub∣stantiae

Vini in substantiam Sanguinis ejus; quae conversio convenienter & propriè à Sancta Catholica Ecclesia Transubstantiatio est appellata. And a little before, cap. 3. Si quis negave∣rit * 1.3 in venerabili Sacramento Euchari∣stiae sub unaquaque specie, & sub sin∣gulis cujusque speciei partibus, separa∣tione factâ, totum Christum contineri, Anathema sit. In which passages it is plainly affirmed, that not onely the Bread is turned into the whole Body of Christ, and the Wine into his Bloud, but that each of them are turned in∣to the whole Body of Christ, and every part of each, as often as division or separation is made, is also turned in∣to his whole Body. Which is such a contradictious Figment, that there is nothing so repugnant to the Facul∣ties of the humane Soul.

4. For thus the Body of Christ will be in God knows how many thou∣sand places at once, and how many thousand miles distant one from ano∣ther. Whenas Amphitruo rightly ex∣postulates with his Servant Sosia, and

rates him for a Mad-man or Impo∣stour, that he would go about to make him believe that he was at home, though but a little way off, while yet he was with him at that di∣stance from home. Quo id (ma∣lúm!) pacto potest fieri nunc utî tu hîc sis, & domi? And a little before, in the same Colloquie with his Servant, Nemo unquam homo vidit, saith he, nec potest fieri, tempore uno homo idem duo∣bus locis ut simul sit. Wherein Am∣phitruo speaks but according to the common sense and apprehension of all men, even of the meanest Idiots.

5. But now let us examine it ac∣cording to the Principles of the lear∣ned, and of all their Arts and Scien∣ces, Physicks, Metaphysicks, Mathema∣ticks and Logick. It is a Principle in Physicks, That that internall space that a Body occupies at one time is equal to the Body that occupies it. Now let us suppose one and the same body oc∣cupy two such internall places or spa∣ces at once; This Body is therefore equal to those two spaces, which are

double to one single space; where∣fore the body is double to that body in one single space, and therefore one and the same body double to it self. Which is an enormous Contradi∣ction.

Again, in Metaphysicks; The Bo∣dy of Christ is acknowledged one, and that as much as any one body else in the world. Now the Metaphysicall Notion of one is, to be indivisum à se, (both quo ad partes and quo ad totum,) as well as divisum à quolibet alio. But the Body of Christ being both in Hea∣ven, and, without any continuance of that body, here upon Earth also, the whole body is divided from the whole body, and therefore is entire∣ly both unum and multa: which is a perfect Contradiction.

6. Thirdly, in Mathematicks; The Council saying that in the separati∣on of the parts of the Species, (that which bears the outward show of Bread or Wine,) that from this Di∣vision there is a parting of the whole, divided into so many entire Bodies

of Christ, the Body of Christ being always at the same time equal to it self, it follows, that a part of the Di∣vision is equal to the whole, against that common Notion in Euclide, That the Whole is bigger then the Part.

And, lastly, in Logick it is a Max∣ime, That the Parts agree indeed with the Whole, but disagree one with another. But in the abovesaid Division of the Host or Sacrament the Parts do so well agree, that they are entirely the very same individuall thing. And whereas any Division, whether Logicall or Physicall, is the Division of some one into many; this is but the Division of one into one and itself, like him that for bre∣vity sake divided his Text into one Part.

To all which you may adde, that, unlesse we will admit of two Sosia's and two Amphitruo's in that sense that the mirth is made with it in Plautus his Comedy, neither the Bread nor the Wine can be transubstantiated into the intire Body of Christ. For this

implies that the same thing is, and is not, at the same time. For that in∣dividual thing that can be, and is to be made of any thing, is not. Now the individual Body of Christ is to be made of the Wafer consecrated, for it is turned into his individual Body. But his individual Body was before this Consecration. Wherefore it was, and it was not, at the same time. Which is against that fundamental Principle in Logick and Metaphysicks, That both parts of a Contradiction cannot be true; or, That the same thing cannot both be, and not be, at once.

Thus fully and intirely contradi∣ctious and repugnant to all Sense and Reason, to all indubitable Principles of all Art and Science, is this Fig∣ment of Transubstantiation; and therefore most certainly false. Reade the ten first Conclusions of the brief Discourse of the true Grounds of Faith, added to the Divine Dialogues.

7. And from Scripture it has not the least support. All is, Hoc est cor∣pus

meum, when Christ held the Bread in his hand, and after put part into his * 1.4 own mouth, (as well as distributed it to his Disciples:) in doing where∣of he swallow'd his whole Body down his throat at once, according to the Doctrine of this Council, or at least might have done so, if he would. And so all the Body of Christ, Flesh, Bones, Mouth, Teeth, Hair, Head, Heels, Thighs, Arms, Shoulders, Belly, Back, and all, went through his Mouth into his Stomach; and thus all were in his Stomach, though all his Body intirely, his Stomach exce∣pted, was still without it. Which let any one judge whether it be more likely, then that this saying of Christ, This is my Body, is to be understood figuratively; the using the Verb sub∣stantive in this sense being not un∣usual in Scripture; as in, I am the Vine; The seven lean Kine are the * 1.5 seven years of Famine; and the like: and more particularly, since our Sa∣viour, speaking elsewhere of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud, says

plainly, that the words he spake, they * 1.6 were spirit, and they were truth, that is to say, a spiritual or aenigmaticall truth, not carnally and literally to be understood.

And for the trusting of the judge∣ment of the Roman Church herein that makes it self so sacrosanct & infallible, the Pride, Worldliness, Policy & mul∣tifarious Impostures of that Church, so often and so shamelesly repeated and practised, must needs make their Authority seem nothing in a Point that is so much for their own Inte∣rest, especially set against the unde∣niable Principles of common Sense and Reason, and of all the Arts and Sciences God has illuminated the Mind of man withall. Consider the twelfth Conclusion of the above∣named Treatise, together with the other ten before cited. Wherefore any one that is not a mere Bigott may be as assured that Transubstantiation is a mere Figment or enormous False∣hood, as of any thing else in the whole world.

8. From whence it will unavoida∣bly follow, and themselves cannot de∣ny it, that they are most grosse and palpable Idolaters, and consequently most barbarous Murtherers, in killing the innocent Servants of God for not submitting to the same Idolatries with themselves. Costerus the Jesuite speaks expresly to this Point, (and consonantly, I think, to the Suppo∣sitions of the Council;) viz. That if their Church be mistaken in the Do∣ctrine of Transubstantiation, they ipso facto stand guilty of such a piece of Idolatry as never was before seen or known of in the world.

For the errours of those, saith he, were more tolerable who worship some * 1.7 golden or silver Statue, or some Image of any other Materials, for their God, as the Heathen worshipped their Gods; or a red Cloth hung upon the top of a Spear, as is reported of the Laplan∣ders; or some live Animal, as of old the AEgyptians did; then of these that worship a bit of Bread, as hitherto the Christians have done all over the world

for so many hundred years, if the Do∣ctrine of Transubstantiation be not true.

What can be a more full and ex∣presse acknowledgement of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome then this, if Transubstantiation prove an Errour? Then which notwithstan∣ding there is nothing in the world more certain to all the Faculties of a man; as is manifest out of what has been here said. And therefore the Romanists must be grosse Idola∣ters, from the second, third, fourth, seventh and ninth Conclusions of the first Chapter, and from the fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, twenty-first, twen∣ty-second and twenty-fifth of the se∣cond Chapter. All these Conclusions will give evidence against them, that they are very notorious Idolaters.

9. And therefore this being so high and so palpable a strain of Idolatry in them touching the Eucharist, or the eating the Body and drinking the Bloud of Christ, wherein Christ is of∣fered by the Priest as an Oblation, and the People feed upon him as in a

Feast upon a Sacrifice, which is not done without Divine Adoration done to the Host, according to the precept of their Church; This does hugely confirm our sense of the eating of things offered unto Idols in the Epi∣stles to the Churches in Pergamus and in Thyatira, this worshipping of the Host being so expresly acknowledg∣ed by the Pope and his Clergy, and in that high sense of Cultus Latriae, which is due to God alone. And there∣fore it is very choicely and judicious∣ly perstringed by the Spirit of Pro∣phecy above any other Modes of their Idolatry, it being such a grosse and confessed Specimen thereof, and such as there is no Evasion for or Ex∣cuse.

Hoc teneas vultus mutantem Protea ••odo.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Concil. Trident. Sess. 3. cap. 5. Ca••. 6.
• * 1.2

  Concil. Trident. Sess. 3. cap. 4.
• * 1.3

  cap. 3. can. 3.
• * 1.4

  See Paul. Fag. upon Deut. 8. 10.
• * 1.5

  John 15. 5. Gen. 41. 27.
• * 1.6

  Joh. 6. 63.
• * 1.7

  Francise. Coster. Enchirid. Controvers. cap. 12.