The Lords Supper or, A vindication of the sacrament of the blessed body and blood of Christ according to its primitive institution. In eight books; discovering the superstitious, sacrilegious, and idolatrous abomination of the Romish Master. Together with the consequent obstinacies, overtures of perjuries, and the heresies discernable in the defenders thereof. By Thomas Morton B.D. Bp. of Duresme.

CHALLENGE. [ 20]

THese kind of Subtilties are frequent in the mouthes of most Romish Priests, as often as they are compelled to shew what is demonstrated by the Pronou••e, This. But that these your Similitudes of making Circles, Lines, and Nayles, are no better than Iugling, and Gypsie-trickes of fast or loose, and fond devises forged in the braines of idle Sophisters, and uttered by your Circulary Priests, your owne Authours are ready to ma∣nifest: for in these Examples of the Painters touching a Line, or [ 30] a Circle (as youra 1.1 Bellarmine sheweth) making and saying, This is a Circle; Is no true Proposition, untill the Circle be made. And then it is a figurative speech and not a proper, using the pre∣sent Tense, Is, for the future, Shall be. So he. In like manner your Iesuiteb 1.2 Salmeron affirmeth with a PROFECTÒ and full asseveration, that the speech of him, who, in drawing a Cir∣cle, doth say, This is a Circle, cannot without a Trope or Figure, be judged true. So he.

And furthermore, who knoweth not that every Operative speech doth signifie not the Being of a thing; but the Making [ 40] therof, and bringing of it unto being? For although the Pain∣ter be so nimble, in drawing a Circle, that his hand may go be∣fore his tongue; yet when the Operative virtue consisteth not in working, by the agility of the hand, but in the orderly pro∣nouncing

of the words of a speech with the tongue, so that the Truth therof dependeth upon the utterance of the last syllable; it is impossible but the Priest, in uttering distinctly these words, [Hoc est corpus meum,] must say, This is, before he come to the last syllable of Me••um: and consequently in his sense no∣tifie This to be Christ's Body, before (according to his owne judgement) the Body of Christ can have there any being at all.

By this is discovered the notable Vertigo and dizzinesse of [ 10] your Iesuite Maldonate; Hee, to prove that the Pronoune, This, doth relate to Christ's Body, standeth upon the like Ope∣rative speculation; God (saithc 1.3 he) in creating man of the slime of the earth, might have truly said thereof, This is man: Or in framing Woman of the Rib of man, might have rightly said, This is Woman: or Christ in working his miracle in Cana of Galilee, might have said, (shewing the water) This is Wine. So he. When, notwithstanding, he is inforced in every one to alter the Verbe, Is, thus; Slime is changed into man: Rib is converted into Wo∣man: Water is made Wine, as he himselfe confesseth; expoun∣ding [ 20] the words [This is my Body] thus, Not that it was then his Body (saith he) which as yet it was not, but was about to be: nor that he signified the Bread to be his Body, but to be changed into his Body. So he. As if any thing could be said properly to be that, which as yet it Is not. {fleur-de-lys} No, and therfore your Iesuite Gordon3 1.4 saith directly The Pronoune [THIS] demonstrateth the Body, which is about to be. As much as to say, This [Is] shal∣be. Another of your owne Divines will tell you that4 1.5 If the Pronoune [THIS] demonstrate Christ's Body, then cannot the speech of Christ be practicall (that is) to effectuate that which [ 30] it signifieth; and this will marre your doctrine of Transub∣stantiation quite. {fleur-de-lys} Hitherto of your first Interpretation.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Bellar. See before at the letter (k)
• b 1.2

  Profectò prope∣sitio non est vera, ni∣si postquàm factus est Cuculus: Sed oratio accipitur pro verâ, quia id, quod futurum est, accipitur pro jam facto, per Tropum, non juxta Proprietatem fermo nis: in quem sen∣sum Christus plerun∣que praesens pro fu∣turo usurpavit: ut Matth 26. Apud te facio Pascha cum Di∣scipulis meis, id est, confestim facio Pas∣••lta. Salmeron. Iesuit. Tom. 9. Traclat. 13 §. Secunda.—Si [Est] propriè accipia∣tur, pro existere, du∣rum est ut uniat sub∣jectum cum praedica∣to pro futuro tempore, quia falsa esset propositio, non solùm in orationibus speculativis, & significativis, sed etiam in practicis & factivis: ut si quis volens facere Circulum, rogatus quid est Hoc? respondeatque, Hic est Circulus, Profesiò propositio non est statim vera, &c. Salmer. Ibid. pag. 83.
• c 1.3

  Quum Deus ex limo terrae hominem finxit tectè verè{que} di∣cere potuiller, sump∣to in manus luno, Hic est Homo. Et cum ex costa mulie∣rem fabricavit, sump∣ta costâ dicere pota∣it, Haec est Mulier; quamvis cum pro∣nunciasset Pronomen [Haec] nondum fu∣isset mulier, ac signifi∣câsset cùm ita locutus fuisset, limum non esse hominem, & co∣stam mulierem; sed limum in hominem, costam in mulierem converti. Sic cùm Christus dicit, [Hoc est corpus meum,] significat panem mu∣cari in corpus suum. Quemadmodum si in Cana Galileae, cùm aquam in vinum, &c. Maldon. Iesuit. in Matth. 26. Ita cùm Christus dicit, accep∣to pane [Hoc est cor∣pus meum] quamvis illud corpus nondum ille esset, sed futurum erat, illud eo pronomine demonstrat, nee sig∣nificat panem, quem acceperat, esse corpus suum, sed mutari in corpus suum. Idem in Matth. 26. pag. 635.
• 3 1.4

  Gordonus Scotus Ies. Controvers. 4. cap 3. num. 15. [Hoc] demonstrat corpus futurum. And your Angles
• 4 1.5

  Si [Hoc] demonstrat corpus sub ratione corporis, Propositio speculativa esset, non Practica. Ies. Angles flor. Theol. quaest. Art. 10. Concl. 4. Which was also the Argument of Bellarmine. See above at the letter (k.)