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.

That the Romish Answer, to free their former pretended Mi∣raculous Apparitions from suspicion of Figments, or Illusions, is Vnsufficient. SECT. IV.

ALbeit in these Apparitions there be not true flesh (saym 1.1 some of your Doctors) yet such Apparitions, being miracu∣lously wrought, are sufficient Demonstrations that Christs Flesh [ 40] is in the Eucharist. But why should not wee yeeld more credit to those Schoole-men, who sayn 1.2 True miracles use to bee made in true signes, and not in such as seeme onely so to bee; because seeming signes are wrought by the Art of the Devill? And wee

take it from the Assurance, which your Iesuite giveth us, that o 1.3 Devils and Painters can make such semblances and Simili∣tudes: and that true Miracles are to bee discerned from false, in that false Miracles carry onely a likenesse of things, and are un∣profitable. Furthermore, your ^p Aquinas proveth against the Heretikes, from Sense, that Christ had a true Body, Because it could not agree with the dignity of his person, who is Truth, that there should be any fiction in any worke of his. Thus stand you still confuted by your owne domesticall witnesses.

[ 10] Wee may adde this Reason, why there could be no Resem∣blances of Truth, because all the personall Apparitions are said to bee of an Infant, and of the Child Iesus; albeit Christ, at his Ascension out of this World,* 1.4 was 34. yeares of age: and yet now behold Christ an Infant 34. yeares old! as if your 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 had beheld Christ, with the Magi, in Bethelehem, at the time of his birth; and not in Bethaven, with his Disciples, at the instant of [ 20] his Ascension.

Notes

• m 1.1

  Quamvis non fiat, ut vera caro Christi, vel reverà vera caro (ut respon∣dent Thomistae) sed tantum color & figu∣ra ejus, tamen quòd sit externa species, sive imago divinitùs facta, sufficiens est ad confirmationem veritatis. Suarez. Ies. Tom. 3. Disput. 55. Sect. 2.
• n 1.2

  Alens. Gabriel. Palacius dicunt quòd miracula siunt veris, & non apparentibus signis & figuris—Asserunt talem apparitionem non esse factam virtute Dei, sed Daemonis. Suarez Ibid. [Where hee addeth, Hoc ab ijs gratis dictum est.]
• o 1.3

  Potest Dae∣mon repraesentare fi∣guras quarum libet re∣rum, ut argenti, auti, epul rum, quem∣admodum per••ssi∣mi Sculprores & Pi∣ctores v••tias fo••mas, & figur•• rerum ità finguam, ut interdum verae esse videantur. Sed verè & propriè miraculum id dicitur opus, quod omnis ••aturae creatae vum at{que} potentiam exce∣dit. Et una differen∣tia, quâ vera mira∣cula possunt à falsis discerni, haec est, quòd falsa sunt phā∣tastica, & simulata, ideo{que} non diturna: vel sunt planè inutilia. Perer. Ies. in Ex••. 7 Disp. 4. Num. 34. & D. 5. N. 36 38. Tertia ratio sum potest ad confirmandam veritatem Corporis, ex dignitat•• personae corpus assumentis: quae cum sit veritas, non de∣cuit ut in ejus opere aliqua sictio insit. Aquin. part 3. qu. 5. Ait. 2
• * 1.4

  Baron. A••n. 34.