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and effusion of their Lord's blood prefigured and set before them for faith to feed upon; this Protestants have not." I tliink the man is mistaken, and that he intended to say the CathoUcs have not, and to place Protestants in the beginning of the sentence; for it is cer- tain that this is the very doctrine of the Protestants concerning this sacrament. They have in it the sacrifice of Christ before their eyes, and the death and effusion of his blood figured (for how that should be prefigured which is past, I know not) and set forth for faith to feed upon. This they say, this they teach and believe; when I know not how Catholics can have any thing figured unto them, nothing- being the sign of itself: nor is it the feeding of faith, but of the mouth, that they are solicitous about, " But this," saith he, " they do not," — though he had not spoken of any doing before, which is an old last that we have been now well used to, — and " yet this," saith he, " ought to be done ; for so our Lord commanded, when he said to his apostles, ' Hoc facite ;' — ' This do ye, which you have seen me to do, and in that manner you see me do it, exercising before your eyes my priestly function according to the order of Melchizedek ; with which power I do also invest you, and appoint you to do the like, even unto the consummation of the world, in commemoration of my death and passion, exhibiting and showing forth your Lord's death until he come.' This Protestants do not ; and we are mad-angry that the Papist does what his Redeemer enjoined him." I fear his readers, which shall consider this odd medley, will begin to think that they are not only Protestants who used to be mad-angry. This kind of writing argues, I will not say both madness and anger, but one of them it doth seem plainly to do ; for, setting aside a farfetched false notion or two about Melchizedek, and the doctrine of the sacra- ment here expressed is that which the pope with fire and sword hath laboured to exterminate out of the world, burning hundreds (I think) in England for believing that our Lord, instituting his blessed supper, commanded his apostles to do the same that he then did, and in the same manner, even to the consummation of the world, in the com- memoration of his death and passion, exhibiting and showing forth their Lord's death until he come. A man would suppose that he had taken these words out of the liturgy of the church of England, for therein are they expressly found. And why, then, have not Protest- ants that which he speaks of? Yea, but Christ did this in " the exercise of his priestly function ; and with the same power of priest- hood, according to the order of Melchizedek, invested his apostles." Both these may be granted, and the Protestants' doctrine and faith concerning this sacrament not at all impeached ; but the truth is, they are both false. The Lord Christ exercised indeed his priestly function, when on the cross he offered himself to God, through the
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146 ANIMADVERSIONS ON A TREATISE
eternal Spirit, a sacrifice for the sins of the world ; but it was by virtue of his kingly and prophetical power that he instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, and taught his disciples the use of it, com- manding its observation in all his churches to the end of the world. And as for any others being made priests after the order of Mel- chizedek besides himself alone, it is a figment so expressly contrary to the words and reasoning of the apostle, that I wonder any man, not mad or angry, could once entertain any approving thoughts of it. That our author may no more mistake in this matter, I desire he would give me leave to inform him, that, setting aside his " proper sacrificing" of the Son of God, and his hideous figment of transub- stantiation, both utter strangers to the Scripture and antiquity, there is nothing can by him be named concerning this sacrament, as to its honour or efficacy, but it is all admitted by Protestants.
He pretends, after this loose harangue, to speak to the thing itself, and tells us that the " consecrated chalice is not ordinarily given to people by the priest in private communion;" as though in some cases it Avere given amongst them to the body of the people, or that they had some public communion wherein it was ordinarily so given ; both which he knows to be untrue. So impossible it seems for him to speak plainly and directly to what he treats on ! But it is a thing which hath need of these artifices: if one falsity be not covered with another, it will quickly rain^ through all. However, he tells us, that they " should do so, is neither expedient nor necessary, as to any effects of the sacrament." I wish, for his own sake, some course might be found to take him off this confidence of setting himself agaiust the apostles and the whole primitive church at once; that he might apprehend the task too difiicult for him to undertake, and meddle with it no more. All expediency in the administration of this great ordinance, and all the effects of it, depend solely on the institution and blessing of Christ ; if he have appointed the use of both. elements, what are we, poor worms, that we should come now, in the end of the world, and say the use of one of them is not " expedient nor necessary to any effects of communion?" Are we wiser than he? Have we more care of his church than he had? or do we think that it becomes us thus arbitrarily to choose and refuse in the institutions of our Lord and Master? What is it to us what cavils soever men can lay, that it is not necessary in the way of Protestants, nor in the way of Catholics? — we know it is necessary in the way of Christ. And if either Protestants or Catholics leave that way, for me they shall walk in their own ways by themselves. But why is it not necessary