ed into the People which are faid to be united to Chrift.

I omit many others, and pafs to St. Austin in the fourth Age after Chrift. And I the rather infift upon his Teftimony, because of his eminent Elteem and Authority in the Latin Church; and he also calls the Elements of the Sacrament the Figure and Sign of Chrift's Body and Blood. In his Book against Adamantus the Manichee we have this Expreffion; Our Lord did not doubt to fay, this is my Body, when be gave the fign of bis Body (z). And in his explication of the third Pfalm, fpeaking of Judas whom our Lord admitted to bis last Supper, in which (fays he) (a) be commended and deli vered to his Difciples the figure of his Body; Language which would now be cenfured for Herefie in the Church of Rome. Indeed he was never accus'd of Herefte, as Cardinal Perron fays Origen was, but he talks as like one as Origen himself. And in his Comment on the 98th Pfalm, fpeaking of the Offence which the Difciples took at that Saying of our Saviour, Except ye eat the Flefb of the Son of Man and drink bis Blood, &c. he brings in our Saviour Speaking thus to them, (b) Ye muft understand Spiritually,what I bave faid unto you; ye are not to eat this Body which ye fee, and to drink that Blood which fhall be shed by those that hall cruz cifie me. I have commended a certain Sacra ment to you, which being spiritually understood will give you Life. What more oppofite to the Doctrine of Tranfubftantiation, than that

(2) Aug. Tom. 6. p. 187: Edit. Bafil. 1596. ~ (a) Enarras, in Pfal. Tom, s. p. 16. (b) Id. Tem, 9. p. 1105.

the

the Disciples were not to eat that Body of Chrift which they faw, nor to drink that Blood which was fhed upon the Crofs, but that all this was to be understood fpiritually and according to the nature of a Sacrament? for that Body he tells us is not here but in Heaven, in his Comment upon thefe Words, Me ye have not always. (c) He speaks (fays he) of the Prefence of his Body: ye shall have me according to my Providence, according to Majesty and invifible Grace: but according to the flesh which the Word affumed, according to that which was born of the Virgin Mary, ye shall not have me therefore because he converfed with his Dif ciples forty days, he is ascended up into Heaven, and is not here.

In his 23d Epiftle; (d) If the Sacrament (fays he) had not fome resemblance of thofe things whereof they are Sacraments, they would not be Sacraments at all; but from this refemblance they take for the most part the names of the things which they reprefent. Therefore as the Sacrament of the Body of Chrift is in fome manner or fenfe Chrift's Body, and the Sa crament of his Blood is the Blood of Chrift; So the Sacrament of Faith (meaning Baptifm) is faith. Upon which Words of St. Austin there is this remarkable Glofs in their own CanonLaw? (e) The heavenly Sacrament which truly reprefents the flesh of Chrift is called the Body of Chrift; but improperly: whence it is faid, that after a manner, but not according to the truth the thing, but the Mystery of the thing fignified; lo

(c) Id. Traft. so. in Joan. (d) 4. Tom. 2. p. 93. (c) De Confecrat. dift. 2. Hoc eft.

that

that the meaning is, it is called the Body of Christ, that is, it fignifies the Body of Chrift: And if this be St. Auftin's meaning, I am fure no Proteftant can fpeak more plainly againstTranfubftantiation. And in the ancient Canon of the Mafs, before it was changed in complyance with this new Doctrine, it is exprefly call'd 4 Sacrament, 4 Sign, an Image, and a Figure of Chrift's Body To which I will add that remarkable Paffage of St. Auftin cited by (f) Gratian, That as we receive the fimilitude of bis Death in Baptism, fo we may also receive the likeness of his Flesh and Blood, that fo neither may truth be wanting in the Sacrament, por Pagans bave occafion to make us ridiculous for drinking the Blood of one that was Rain.

I will mention but one Teftimony more of this Father, but fo clear a one as it is impoffible any Man in his Wits that had believed Tranfubftantiation could have uttered. It is in his Treatife (g) de doctrina Chriftiana; where laying down feveral Rules for the right underftanding of Scripture, he gives this for one. If (fays he) the speech be a Precept forbidding some beinons Wickedness or Crime, or commanding us to do good, it is not figurative; but if it seem to command any heinous Wickedness or Crime, or to forbid that which is profitable or beneficial to 9thers, it is figurative. For example, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink bis Blood, ye have no Life in you: This feems to command a heinous Wickedness and Crime, therefore it is a figure; commanding us to communi

(f) De Confecrat, dift. 2. Sect. Virum. (8) Lib. 3. Tam” 3.P. 53.

cate

cate of the paffion of our Lord, and with delight and advantage to lay up in our memory that his flefb was crucified and wounded for us. So that, according to St. Auftin's best Skill in interpreting Scripture, the literal eating of the Flesh of Chrift, and drinking his Blood, would have been a great Impiety; and therefore the Expreffion is to be understood figuratively; not as Cardinal Perron would have it, only in oppofition to the cating of his Flesh and Blood in the grofs appearance of Flesh and Blood, but to the real eating of his natural Body and Blood under any Appearance what foever: For St. Auftin doth not fay, this is a Figurative Speech wherein we are commanded really to feed upon the natural Body and Blood of Chrift under the species of Bread and Wine, as the Cardinal would underftand him; for then the Speech would be literal and not figurative: But he fays, this is a figurative Speech wherein we are commanded Ipiritually to feed upon the remembrance of his Paflion.

To thefe I will add but three or four Teftimonies more in the two following Ages.

The firft fhall be of Theodoret, who speaking of that (b) Prophecy of Jacob concerning our Saviour, he walked bis Garments in Wine, and his Clothes in the Blood of Grapes, hath thefe Words, (i) As we call the mystical fruit of the Vine (that is, the Wine in the Sacrament) after confecration the Blood of the Lord, fo be (viz. Jacob) calls the Blood of the true Vine (viz. of Chrift) the Blood of the Grape: But the Blood

(h) Gen. 49.11. (i) Dialog. 1.

of

of Chrift is not literally and properly but only figuratively the Blood of the Grape, in the fame fenfe as he is faid to be the true Vine; and therefore the Wine in the Sacrament after Confecra tion is in like manner not literally and properly but figuratively the Blood of Chrift. And he explains this afterwards, faying, that our Savi our changed the names, and gave to his Body the name of the Symbol or Sign, and to that Symbol· or Sign the name of his Body; thus when be bad 'call'd himself the Vine, be call'd the Symbol or Sign bis Blood; fo that in the fame fenfe that he 'call'd himself the Vine, he call'd the Wine, which is the Symbol of his Blood, his Blood: For, fays he, he would have those who partake of the Divine Myfteries not to attend to the nature of the things which are feen, but by the change of names to believe the change which is made by Grace; for he who call'd that which by nature is a Body, Wheat and Bread, and again likewife called himself the Vine, he honour'di be Symbols with the name of bis Body and Blood: not changing Nature, but adding Grace to Nature. Where you fee he fays exprefly, that when he call'd the Symbols or Elements of the Sacrament, viz. Bread and Wine, his Body and Blood, he made no change in the Nature of the things, only added Grace to Nature, that is, by the Divine Grace and Bleffing he raised them to a fpiritual and fupernatural virtue and efficacy.

The Second is of the fame Theodoret, in his fecond Dialogue between a Catholique under the name of Orthodoxus, and an Heretique under the name of Eraniftes; who maintaining that the Humanity of Christ was chang'd into the