But when by such words the nature or quality of the thing itself is pretended to be changed,it is not consecration,but either an extraordinary work of God,or a vain and impious conjuration.But seeing,for the frequency of pretending the change of nature in their consecrations,it cannot be esteemed a work extraordinary,it is no other than a conjuration or incantation,whereby they would have men to believe an alteration of nature that is not,contrary to the testimony of man's sight and of all the rest of his senses.As for example,when the priest,instead of consecrating bread and wine to God's peculiar service in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (which is but a separation of it from the common use to signify,that is,to put men in mind of,their redemption by the Passion of Christ,whose body was broken and blood shed upon the cross for our transgressions),pretends that by saying of the words of our Saviour,"This is my body,"and "This is my blood,"the nature of bread is no more there,but his very body;notwithstanding there appeareth not to the sight or other sense of the receiver anything that appeared not before the consecration.The Egyptian conjurers,that are said to have turned their rods to serpents,and the water into blood,are thought but to have deluded the senses of the spectators by a false show of things,yet are esteemed enchanters.But what should we have thought of them if there had appeared in their rods nothing like a serpent,and in the water enchanted nothing like blood,nor like anything else but water,but that they had faced down the king,that they were serpents that looked like rods,and that it was blood that seemed water?That had been both enchantment and lying.And yet in this daily act of the priest,they do the very same,by turning the holy words into the manner of a charm,which produceth nothing new to the sense;but they face us down,that it hath turned the bread into a man;nay,more,into a God;and require men to worship it as if it were our Saviour himself present,God and Man,and thereby to commit most gross idolatry.For if it be enough to excuse it of idolatry to say it is no more bread,but God;why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians,in case they had the faces to say the leeks and onions they worshipped were not very leeks and onions,but a divinity under their species or likeness?The words,"This is my body,"are equivalent to these,"This signifies,or represents,my body";and it is an ordinary figure of speech:but to take it literally is an abuse;nor,though so taken,can it extend any further than to the bread which Christ himself with his own hands consecrated.
For he never said that of what bread soever any priest whatsoever should say,"This is my body,"or "This is Christ's body,"the same should presently be transubstantiated.Nor did the Church of Rome ever establish this transubstantiation,till the time of Innocent the Third;which was not above five hundred years ago,when the power of Popes was at the highest,and the darkness of the time grown so great,as men discerned not the bread that was given them to eat,especially when it was stamped with the figure of Christ upon the cross,as if they would have men believe it were transubstantiated,not only into the body of Christ,but also into the wood of his cross,and that they did eat both together in the sacrament.
The like incantation,instead of consecration,is used also in the sacrament of baptism:where the abuse of God's name in each several person,and in the whole Trinity,with the sign of the cross at each name,maketh up the charm.As first,when they make the holy water,the priest saith,"I conjure thee,thou creature of water,in the name of God the Father Almighty,and in the name of Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord,and in virtue of the Holy Ghost,that thou become conjured water,to drive away all the powers of the enemy,and to eradicate,and supplant the enemy,"etc.And the same in the benediction of the salt to be mingled with it,"That thou become conjured salt,that all phantasms and knavery of the Devil's fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art sprinkled;and every unclean spirit be conjured by him that shall come to judge the quick and the dead."The same in the benediction of the oil,"That all the power of the enemy,all the host of the Devil,all assaults and phantasms of Satan,may be driven away by this creature of oil."And for the infant that is to be baptized,he is subject to many charms:
first,at the church door the priest blows thrice in the child's face,and says,"Go out of him,unclean spirit,and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter."As if all children,till blown on by the priest,were demoniacs.Again,before his entrance into the church,he saith as before,"I conjure thee,etc.,to go out,and depart from this servant of God";and again the same exorcism is repeated once more before he be baptized.These and some other incantations are those that are used instead of benedictions and consecrations in administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper;wherein everything that serveth to those holy uses,except the unhallowed spittle of the priest,hath some set form of exorcism.
Nor are the other rites,as of marriage,of extreme unction,of visitation of the sick,of consecrating churches,and churchyards,and the like,exempt from charms;inasmuch as there is in them the use of enchanted oil and water,with the abuse of the cross,and of the holy word of David,asperges me Domine hyssopo,as things of efficacy to drive away phantasms and imaginary spirits.
