follows inevitably, that it is figuratively, not properly and naturally spoken of bread, that it is the flesh or body of our Lord.

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SECTION VI.

Est Corpus meum.

1. THE next words to be considered, are Est corpus,' This is my body;' and here begins the first tropical expression; est,' that is, significat' or 'repræsentat, et exhibet corpus meum,' say some. This is my body,' it is to all real effects the same to your particulars, which my body is to all the church: it signifies, the breaking of my body, the effusion of my blood for you, and applies my passion to you, and conveys to you all the benefits; as this nourishes your bodies, so my body nourishes your souls to life eternal, and consigns your bodies to immortality. Others make the trope in corpus;' so that est' shall signify properly, but corpus' is taken in a spiritual sense, sacramental and mysterious; not a natural and presential; whether the figure be inest' or in corpus,' is but a question of rhetoric, and of no effect. That the proposition is tropical and figurative, is the thing, and that Christ's natural body is now in heaven definitively, and no where else; and that he is in the sacrament as he can be in a sacrament, in the hearts of faithful receivers, as he hath promised to be there; that is, in the sacrament mystically, operatively, as in a moral and divine instrument, in the hearts of receivers by faith and blessing; this is the truth and the faith of which we are to give a reason and account to them that disagree. But this, which is to all the purpose, which any one pretends can be in the sumption of Christ's body naturally, yet will not please the Romanists, unless est,' is,' signify properly without trope or metonymy, and corpus' be corpus naturale.' Here then I join issue; it is not Christ's body properly, or naturally: for though it signifies a real effect, yet it signifies the body figuratively, or the effects and real benefits.

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2. Now concerning this, there are very many inducements to infer the figurative or tropical interpretation. 1. In the language which our blessed Lord spake, there is no word that can express significat,' but they use the word is;' the

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Hebrews and the Syrians always join the names of the signs with the things signified: and since the very essence of a sign is to signify, it is not an improper elegancy, in those languages, to use est' for significat. 2. It is usual in the Old Testament, as may appear, to understand, est,' when the meaning is for the present, and not to express it: but when it signifies the future, then to express it; "the seven fat cows, seven years; the seven withered ears shall be seven years of famine." 3. The Greek interpreters of the Bible supply the word est,' in the present tense, which is omitted in the Hebrew, as in the places above quoted: but although their language can very well express signifies,' yet they follow the Hebrew idiom. 4. In the New Testament the same manner of speaking is retained to declare, that the nature and being of signs, is to signify they have no other ' esse' but significare,' and therefore they use est' for 'significat." The seed is the word: the field is the world: the reapers are the angels: the harvest is the end of the world: the rock is Christ; I am the door: I am the vine: my Father is the husbandman: I am the way, the truth, and the life: Sarah and Agar are the two Testaments: the stars are the angels of the churches: the candlesticks are the churches:" and many more of this kind; we have therefore great and fair and frequent precedents for expounding this est' by significat; for it is the style of both the Testaments, to speak in signs and representments, where one disparate speaks of another, as it does here: the body of Christ, of the bread, which is the sacrament; especially since the very institution of it is representative, significative, and commemorative for so said our blessed Saviour, "Do this in memorial of me*;" and "This doing, ye shew forth the Lord's death till he come," saith St. Paul.

3. Secondly: The second credibility that our blessed Saviour's words are to be understood figuratively, is because it is a sacrament': for mysterious and tropical expressions are very frequently, almost regularly and universally, used in Scripture, in sacraments, and sacramentals. And therefore,

i Gen. xli. 26. 27. xl. 12. 18. xvii. 10. Exod. xii. 11.

* Nemo recordatur nisi quod in præsentiâ non est positum: St. August. in

Psal. xxxvii.

1 Hæc enim Sacramenta sunt, in quibus non quid sint, sed quid ostendant, semper attenditur, quoniam signa sunt rerum aliud existentia, aliud significantia. August. lib. 3. contr. Max. c. 22. Sacramentum dicitur sacrum signum, sive sacrum secretum. Bern. Serm. de Cœn. Dom.

it is but a vain discourse of Bellarmine to contend, that this must be a proper speaking, because it is a sacrament. For that were all one as to say, ' He speaks mystically,' therefore he 'speaks properly.' Muoripov is the Greek for a sacrament; and all the Greek that is for it in the New Testament: and when St. Paul tells of a man praying in the Spirit,' but so as not to be understood, he expresses it by, speaking mysteries". The mysterious and sacramental speaking is secret and dark. But so it is in the sacrament or covenant of circumcision. Toutó toti ǹ diadńun μov, 'This is my covenant"," and yet it was but "the seal of the covenant," if you believe St. Paul', it was a sacrament and a consignation of it, but it is spoken of it affirmatively; and the same words are used there as in the sacrament of the eucharist; it is dann in both places.

4. And upon this account two other usual objections (pretending that this being a covenant and a testament, it ought to be expressed without a figure) are dissolved. For here is a covenant and a testament and a sacrament all in one, and yet the expression of them is figurative; and the being a testament is so far from supposing all expression in it to be proper and free from figure, that itself, the very word, testament,' in the institution of the holy sacrament, is tropical or figurative: est testamentum,' that is, est signum testamenti,' it is,' that is, it signifies.' And why they should say, that a testament must have in it all plain words and no figures or hard sayings, that contend that both the Testaments, New and Old, are very full of hard sayings, and upon that account forbid the people to read them; I confess I cannot understand. Besides this, though it be fit in temporal testaments all should be plain, yet we see all are not plain; and from thence come so many suits of law; yet there is not the same reason in spiritual or divine, and in human testaments; for in human, there is nothing but legacies and express commands, both which it is necessary that we understand plainly; but, in divine testaments, there are mysteries to exercise our industry and our faith, our patience and inquiry, some things for us to hope, some things for us to admire, some things to pry into, some things to act, some things for the present, some things for the future, some things pertaining to this life, some things pertaining to the

m 1 Cor. xiv. 2.

n Gen. xvii. 10.

• Rom. iv. 11.

life to come, some things we are to see in a glass darkly, some things reserved till the vision of God's face. And after all this, in human testaments men ought to speak plainly, because they can speak no more when they are dead. But Christ can, for he being dead yet speaketh;' and he can by his Spirit make the church understand as much as he please; and he will as much as is necessary: and it might be remembered, that in Scripture there is extant a record of Jacob's testament, and of Moses", which we may observe to be an allegory all the way. I have heard also of an Athenian, that had two sons; and being asked on his deathbed, to which of his two sons he would give his goods, to Leon or Pantaleon, which were the names of his two sons; he only said, Sidwμ warraλɛóvTi, but whether he meant to give 'all wávra to Leon,' or to Pantaleon,' is not yet known. And in the civil law it is noted, that testaments have figurative expressions very often; and therefore decreed, "Non enim, in causâ testamentorum, ad definitionem (strictam, sive propriam verborum significationem, saith the gloss), utique descendendum est, cum plerumque abusivè loquantur, nec propriis vocabulis ac nominibus semper utantur testatores." And there are in law certain measures for presumption of the testator's meaning. These therefore are trifling arrests; even a commandment may be given with a figurative expression, and yet be plain enough: such was that of Jesus: Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would send men into his harvest ;" and that, Jesus commanded "his disciples to prepare the passover;" and some others and so, "Rend your hearts, and not your garments," &c. And an article of faith may be expressed figuratively; so is that of Christ's sitting at the right hand of his Father. And therefore, much more may there be figurative expressions in the institution of a mystery, and yet be plain enough; "Tropica locutio cum fit ubi fieri solet, sine labore sequitur intellectus," said St. Austin". Certain it is, the church understood this well enough for a thousand years together, and yet admitted of figures in the institution: and since these new men had the handling of it, and excluded the figurative sense, they have made it so hard, that themselves cannot understand it, nor tell one another's meaning. But it suffices P Gen. xlix. Deut. xxxiii. 4 Lib. non aliter sect. Titius F. de legat. et fidei com. r Lib. 3. de Doct. Christ. c. 37.

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as to this particular, that in Scripture, doctrines and promises and precepts and prophecies and histories, are expressed sometimes figuratively; Dabo tibi claves ;' and Semen mulieris conteret caput serpentis;' and 'The dragon drew the third part of the stars with his tail;' and Fight the good fight of faith, Put on the armour of righteousness;'-and very many more.

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5. Thirdly: And indeed there is no possibility of distinguishing sacramental propositions from common and dogmatical, or from a commandment; but that these are affirmative of a nature, those of mystery; these speak properly, they are figurative such as this; "Unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." The proposition is sacramental, mystical, and figurative: "Go and baptize," that is a precept; therefore the rather is it literal and proper. So it is in the blessed sacrament, the institution is in, "Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave to his disciples, saying, Take, eat." In these also there is a precept, and in the last words, 'Hoc facite,' This do in remembrance of me ;'-but the sacramental proposition or the mystical, which explicates the sacra ment, is, Hoc est corpus meum;' and either this is, or there is no sacramental proposition in this whole affair to explicate the mystery, or the being a sacrament. But this is very usual in sacramental propositions. For so baptism is called 'regeneration,' and it is called a burial' by St. Paul, "for we are buried with him in baptism ;" then baptism is either sepulchrum' or sepultura,' the grave' or the 'burial;' but either of them is a figure, and it is so much used in sacramental and mystic propositions, that they are all so, or may be so; "ut baptismus sepulchrum, sic hoc est corpus meum," saith St. Austin". And this is also observed in Gentile rites. φέρον ὅρκια πιστὰ,

The slain lambs and the wine' were the sacrament, the faithful oaths; that is, the rite and mystery of their sanction; they were oaths figuratively.

6. Fourthly: But to save the labour of more instances St. Austin hath made the observation, and himself gives in a list of particulars: "Solet autem res quæ significat, ejus rei nomine quam significat, nuncupari; septem spicæ, septem

Lib. 20. contr. Faustum Manich, c. 21.

t Il, y.245.