Full and Easy Satisfaction, Part 4 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. The Minor proved, viz. That theſe Miracles are falſe.
THat theſe are all but feigned Miracles, I thus prove. I. Becauſe the holy Scriptures do plainly deny ſuch an ordinarineſs or commonneſs of the gift of Miracles. 1 Cor. 12.8, 9, 10, 11. [To one is given by the ſpirit the word of Wiſdom, to another the word of Knowledge by the ſame ſpirit, to another faith by the ſame ſpirit, to another the gifts of healing by the ſame ſpirit, to another the working of miracles, &c. But all theſe worketh that one and the ſelf ſame ſpirit; dividing to every man ſeverally as he will. 28, 29. And God hath ſet ſome in the Church, firſt Apoſtles, ſecondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, Governments, diverſities of tongues: Are all Apoſtles? are all Prophets? are all Teachers? are all workers of Miracles.]
Here it is moſt expreſly told us, that working Miracles is a peculiar gift of ſome, and even in thoſe times not common to all that were Prieſts. But the Papiſts make it common to every Prieſt, though a common Adulterer, Drunkard, Murderer or Heretick; no one Prieſt in the world is without it.
II. Though ſome few that were workers of iniquity might have ſome ſuch gifts, Matth. 7. Yet that was ſo rare, that Nature it ſelf taught men to judge Miracles to be ſigns of divine approbation: ſo that Nicodemus thence argueth, Joh. 3.2. No man could do theſe Miracles that thou doſt except God be with him. And the man Joh. 9.31. God heareth not ſinners, but if any man be a Worſhipper of God and doth his will, him he heareth. And the people, verſ. 16. How can a man that is a ſinner do ſuch Miracles? And it was Chriſts own proof that he was of God, and his Goſpel true; and therefore to Blaſpheam his Miracles, by aſcribing them to the Devil, was the unpardonable Blaſphemy of the Holy Ghoſt: And to deny Miracles to be a ſign of Gods atteſtation is to ſubvert all Chriſtianity. Act. 2.22. Jeſus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and ſigns which God did by him in the midſt of you — Joh. 5.36. The ſame works that I do bear witneſs of me that the Father hath ſent me. Joh. 10.25, 37, 38. The works that I do in my Fathers name, they bear witneſs of me — If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not: But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Joh. 14.11. Believe me for the very works ſake.
Joh. 15.24. If I had not done among them the works that no other man did, they had not had ſin.
This alſo was Pauls proof of his Apoſtleſhip, yea and of the truth of all the Apoſtles doctrine: Heb. 2.3, 4.2 Cor. 12.12. Rom. 15.19. Act. 14.3. & 15.12. God alſo bearing them witneſs both with ſigns and wonders, and divers Miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghoſt, according to his own Will.
Therefore that Doctrine is unlike to be true,Matth. 21.15. which tells us that every wicked Prieſt in the world, though a Simoniſt, or an enemy of Chriſt and Godlineſs, and drown'd in all Vice, is ſuch a conſtant miracle-worker: When God hateth all the workers of iniquity, Pſal. 5.5.
III. But though this Reaſon be but probable, this following is demonſtrative to a believer.
That doctrine which maketh every Ignorant wicked or Heretical Prieſt in the world, far to excell the Prophets, Apoſtles, and Chriſt himſelf, in the Greatneſs, Number and facility of Miracles, is falſe: But ſuch is this doctrine of Tranſubſtantiation —
I know that Chriſt telleth his Apoſtles [Greater works than theſe ſhall ye do.] But 1. There are Greater works (ſuch as the converting of greater numbers in the world) which are not Greater Miracles: 2. And what was promiſed …o the Apoſtles, as to Miracles, was not promiſed to every Prieſt in the world.
I appeal to the Conſciences of ſober Chriſtians, whether it ſound not as an arrogant if not blaſpheamous ſpeech, to ſay that Chriſt and his Apoſtles did fewer and ſmaller miracles (proportionable to their time) than every Prieſt.
And as to the Minor, it is ſoon proved in its parts.
1. As to the Greatneſs of the Miracles; thoſe of Chriſt were exceeding Great: eſpecially his Raiſing Lazarus, and his own Reſurrection, his turning water into Wine, and his feeding thouſands with a little food — But he that will examine Tranſubſtantiation as afore-deſcribed, ſhall find it to have more that is contrary to nature, than all theſe, by far. The ſubſtance of the dead body of Chriſt or Lazarus did not vaniſh, but remained to be the organized Recipient matter of the re-entring ſoul. There were no Accidents without ſubſtances, or other ſuch things as are mentioned before. The multiplying of food, could at the moſt be but a new Creation; But it was real food, and none of the contradictions or abſurdities before recited. The turning of Water into Wine was likeſt this in the Papiſts opinion; but indeed little like it. For the matter of the water there remained, with the form of Wine, and ſo became the Matter of Wine, and did not vaniſh: And here was real Wine, and real ſubſtance, and not Accidents without ſubſtances, deceiving all the ſenſes or Intellectual perceptions. The ſame may be ſaid of the miracles of the Apoſtles, compared with Tranſubſtantiation.
2. And as to the Number, though Chriſts and his Apoſtles Miracles were very many, yet there is no Scripture-evidence that they were for number comparable (for ſo much time) to every Prieſts. Chriſts miracles are ſet down in the ſacred hiſtory in ſuch order, and the Evangeliſts ſo much agree in reciting the ſame miracles, that (though St. John ſay) the world could not contain the Books that ſhould be written— yet we find no probability that they were neer ſo common as Maſſes are: when in ſeveral places where Chriſt came, they that looked after Miracles and Signs were denyed them, and had none, but were put off to the ſign of the Prophet Jonah, &c. Yea Herod and Pilate were in this denyed their deſired ſatisfaction; and they that call to him for a miracle on the Croſs. And ſo of the Apoſtles. But every Prieſt doth his miracles as oft as there is a Maſs, though every day.
3. And as to the Facility I ſaid before, that [in his own Country, among his own kindred, he could do no mighty work ſave that he layed his hands on a few ſick folk and healed them, and he marvelled at their unbelief] Mark 6.4, 5, 6. And he ſome time groaned in ſpirit, and wept, (as for Lazarus). And the Diſciples could not caſt out a Devil, Mar. 9.18, 28. Luk. 9.40. It was not to be done but by faſting and prayer. Its like Paul would have cured Trophimus if he could, when he left him ſick. And as holy men ſpake, not when, nor as they pleaſed, but when and as they were inſpired by the Holy Ghoſt: ſo did they work miracles, not arbitrarily, but at ſuch times and in ſuch manner as the ſpirit moved them.
But any the moſt wicked Prieſt can do it at his pleaſure, any hour of the day: and that but by reciting Hoc eſt corpus meum. Many other diſparities appear in what is ſaid before.
IV. The End of the Gift of Miracles confuteth the feigned Miracles of Tranſubſtantiation. The End of Chriſts gift was to prove him to be of God (as is aforeſhewed) and to prove his Apoſtles to be of God, and to confirm the Goſpel which they Preached, Mar. 16.17, 18, 19, 20. Heb. 2.4. As the gift of Tongues ſo other wonders, were to convince unbelievers, 1 Cor. 14. Act. 2. & 4.30. & 5.12. & 7.36. & 8.13. & 14.3. 2 Cor. 12.12.
But the miracles of Tranſubſtantiation are known to no unbeliever; nor to any one in the world by any ſenſe; and have no ſuch End, but a contrary effect.
The Apoſtles who were to convert the world, and next Chriſt, to do the greateſt good, were therefore to do the greateſt miracles: And it was their argument for Chriſt, Joh. 7.31. When Chriſt cometh will he do more miracles than theſe which this man hath done? Yet now every ignorant Prieſt pretendeth to far more, who doth but tempt Infidels to deride Chriſtianity by the pretence; as we do Mahometaniſm, for Mahomets ſport pretended with the Moon, and other ſuch delirations.
V. God is not to be ſaid to work Miracles and croſs the eſtabliſhed courſe of nature without proof. But theſe pretended Miracles have no proof — No man living perceiveth them by ſenſe. And that God telleth us of no ſuch things by ſupernatural Revelation, ſhall be further ſhewed anon: In the mean time, it may ſatisfie us, that they bring us no proof, but their own affirmation, which they require us to believe.
VI. The Matter of theſe pretended Miracles is expreſly contradicted by the Word of God, as ſhall be proved in the next Chapter.
VII. Ad hominem; Do not the Papiſts forget themſelves here, and contradict their other ſuppoſitions?So they do by forbidding to eat Fleſh in Lent: And yet ſay they eat Chriſts fleſh in Lent: When Irenaeus cited by Occumenius Com. in 1 Pe…. c. 3. bringeth in Blandina proving to the Heathens that Chriſtians did not eat fleſh and drink blood in the Euchariſt, becauſe that they uſe even to abſtain for exerciſe ſake, from Lawful fleſh.
1. They make Miracles to be one evidence of ſanctity, and therefore Canonize men, when they think that they have proof that they wrought Miracles: And yet maintain that a Whoremonger, Drunkard or Heretick may do many more.
2. They make Miracles a proof that they are the true Church, and ſay that among us there are no Miracles; and yet they confeſs that every Prieſt, among us and all others, whom they account Schiſmaticks and Hereticks, do more Miracles than Chriſt did; if they conſecrate frequently.
3. They burn men to aſhes for working miracles, even for making God; if ſo be, they do it not in the Roman faſhion.
4. They confeſs that the other Sacraments are not thus made up of Miracles; no not Baptiſm, which is our Chriſtening, and waſheth us from our ſins: And yet this Sacrament alone, muſt by a multitude of Miracles differ from the reſt.
4. Whether the Doctrine of their St. Thomas and his followers and others, that the formal words of this Sacrament have a created effective virtue by which they inſtrumentally make the change (3. q. 78. a. 4. c.) be not an abſurdity rather than a proper miracle. For words Phyſically move but the air firſt, and the terminus of the aires motion (e.g. the ear) next: and next that, if it be an intellectual, or other animal recipient, the ſenſe, and fantaſie next, and ſo on: But the Bread and Wine have no ſenſe nor fantaſie nor Intellect: And to ſay that the moved aire is the means of turning them into the body and blood of Chriſt, is ſtill to multiply miracles.
5. Do they not too much magnifie the common work (and conſequently the office) of a Prieſt, above the work of a Pope or Prelate, who ſeldom conſecrate? when the Prieſt worketh ſo many Miracles more than they?
6. They conclude that a ſinner that hath Voluntatem peccandi receiveth Baptiſm in vain, as to its ends of pardoning him, and therefore ſhould not receive it (Concil. Rom. Epiſt. Gregor. 7. Aquin. 3. q. 68. a. 4. c. &c.) And yet, be the ſinner never ſuch an hypocrite or Infidel, he eateth Chriſts real fleſh nevertheleſs, yea againſt his will, if he do but the outward act.
7. Is it not ſtrange that an Infidel receiveth as verily the real fleſh and blood of Chriſt as a Saint, and yet not the benefits or effects? As if Chriſts fleſh and blood could be in a mans body without his benefit: When he hath promiſed that he that eateth him, ſhall live by him. Yet ſee the meaſures of their faith and Church: Saith Aquinas (3. q. 80. a. 3. ad 2.) [ Ʋnleſs perhaps an Infidel intend to Receive that which the Church giveth, though he have not true faith about other Articles or about this Sacrament] then he may receive ſacramentally.