fecration which mixture is therefore made, because from the Teftimony of Holy Fathers, Holy Mother Church believes that our Lord Christ himself did fo, whose having mixed Water with the Wine that he Confecrated, makes it a great Sin to omit to do it. It is alfo agreeable to the representation of the Mystery of what paffed on the Crofs, and of our Lord Chrift, out of whofe precious Side flowed Water and Blood; as alfo to fignifie the Effect of this Sacrament, which is the Union of the Faithful with Chrift, the Water fignifying the Faithful, and the Wine our Lord Chrift, and the converfion of the Water into the Wine, the Union of our Souls with Chrift by means of this Divine Sacrament, according to what our Lord faid; He that cateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. The Form of this Sacrament is the words of our Saviour, by which the Sacrainent is made; for tho' the Priest pronounceth many and divers words in the Mafs, and makes many Prayers and Petitions to God, yet when he comes to Confecrate, he ufeth only the words of Christ, none others belonging to the fubftance of Confecration; fo the Priest speaking in the Perfon of Chrift, makes this Divine Sacrament, because by virtue of those words, he turneth the substance of Bread into the substance of the Body of Chrift, and the whole fubftance of the Wine into his Blood, there remaining nothing of Bread and Wine after that, but only the Accidents or Species of them; and that after fuch a' manner, that the whole of Chrift's Body and Soul, and Divinity, are contained under every Particle of both, tho' never fo fmall when feparated; fo that in every crumb of the Hoft, tho' never fo fmall, there is Chrift intire, and in every drop of the Species of Wine that is feparated there is Chrift entire, so that in each of the Species whole Chrift, God and Man is received, as alfo the true Sacrament; for which reafon Holy Mother Church does not use to Communicate the Faithful but † under one Species, because in that they receive Chrift entire. To this Divine Sacrament the Worship, Veneration and Adoration of Latria is due, or the + Under one Species.] What makes the Sacrilege of denying the Cup to the People in the Sacrament to be fomething the greater, is, that most of the Roman Doctors do hold, that there is more Grace convey'd to People by communicating under both the Species of Bread and Wine, than under that of Bread.only, Vafquez Cap. 2. Quaft. 80. Art. 12. Difp.215. Nay, Pope Clement the VIth, in his Bull to the King of England in the Year 1341, acknowledgeth as much, wherein he tells that King, that he granted him the privilege of communicating under both kinds, that he might receive the more Grace by receiving the Sacrament fo. dozation.] The Primitive Chriftians must have been People of a strange confidence in tri umphing as they did over the ftupidity of the Heathen Worship, for being directed to Objects that were fubject to all the Accidents and Cafualties, that any other Bodies are fubje& to, had they themfelves at the fame time Worshiped the Hoft, which is fubject to more Accidents than the Stone, Wood, or Brafs of the Heathen Images; for they that do Worship it cannot deny, but that the Hoft may be Stole, Burnt, eat by Mice, or other Vermine, and if kep" too long, will of it felf Mould and Corrupt. They must certainly have the privilege of believing what they have a mind to, that can believe, That if the Primitive Chriftians had had any fuch Doctrine as this of Tranfubftantiation among them, confidering how many, especially in times of Per fame fame that is due to God who is contained therein, and is really prefent there. The Effect that this Sacrament worketh on the Souls of those that receive it worthily, is the Union of the Man with Christ, and by it, through Grace, the Man is incorporated into Chrift, and joyned to his Members: Moreover by this Sacrament, Grace is increased in all fuch as receive it worthily, fo that whatever effects Carnal eating and drinking works upon a Man as to his Corporal Life, the fame are wrought upon Man by this Divine Sacrament as to a Spiritual Life. fecution, apoftatized from the Faith, that it was poffible for them to have concealed it from Celfus, Lucian, Porphyry, and above all, from Julian the Apoftate; or that thofe Heathens, if they had but had the leaft inkling thereof, would not have made the World to have rung with the noise of it; wherefore their having never T mentioned any fuch thing, confidering the Wit and Spite of the Men, is a demonstration, that there could be no fuch Do&rine among Chriftians in their days; neither can Schelftrat's Dorina Arcani, confidering the great numbers, quality, and temper of Renegado's; do any service in this cafe. Decree I. Here being nothing fo neceffary for the Faithful, as the acknowledgement of, and thankfulness for fo profound a Bleffing, and fo excellent a Mercy as that which our Lord Christ did for us, in leaving himself under the Sacramental Species, to be the true Food of our Souls, and for the confolation, fupport, and remedy of the Spiritual Life of Believers; we ought therefore wholly to occupy our felves in the Venera * tion of that Divine Mystery: In order whereunto, Holy Mother Church, befides the continual Thanks and Veneration which the always gives and fhews, hath ordained a particular Day in the Year for the celebration of the Memory of fo great a Bleffing: which not being obferved in this Diocefs, the Synod defiring that in all things this Church may conform her felf to the Customs of the Holy Mother, the Univerfal Church of Rome doth command the Festivity of the most Holy Sacrament to be Celebrated in all the Churches of this Diocefs, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, according to the Stile of thefe Parts, and the faid Day to be kept by all forts of People; and that thereon, either before or after Mafs, they make a Proceffion through the Town, or in fome convenient place with all poffible Solemnity, in the fame manner as they do upon Eafter-day. * Dblerved in this] This Feaft is of later ftanding by at leaft 100 Years, than the Doctrine of Tranfubftantiation: It was Inftituted in the Year 1240 by Pope Urban, as is commonly faid upon a Vifion a Nun had,of the Church's being Imperfect for want of it; but the Spaniards will have a Miracle that was wrought in Spain at that time, which is both too long and too ridiculous to relate, to have given occafion to the Pope's inftituting it. The Indulgences granted to it by Pope Urban, Martin, and Eugenius, are 500 days Pardon to all that fhall be prefent at its firft Vefpers, 500 to all that fhall be prefent at the Mafs of the day, 500 to all;that fhall be at its fecond Vefpers, and soo to every day of its Octaves, as alfo 500 to every hour of them; and wherefoever it finds any place interdicted, it takes off the Interdi& for eight days. Decree THe Synod doth declare, That every faith Ꭲ ful Chriftian fo foon as he attains to the Years of perfect Discretion, that is to say, Men at the Age of fourteen, more or less, according as their Confeffors fhall think fit, and Women having a Capacity to know what they do, at the Age of twelve, are obliged to receive the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharift, once a Year in Lent, or at Eafter, from the hands of their own Vicar or Curate of their Church, and that whofoever does not receive it, being capable, betwixt the beginning of Lent, and the fecond Sunday after Eafter, fhall be declared Excommunicate on the third Sunday, and be held as fuch untill they have confefled themselves, and Commumcated. Nevertheless the Synod gives Licence to fuch Vicars as know their Parishes to be of that Nature, that it is not poffible for the People to comply with this Obligation in fo short a time, to wait 'till Whitfuntide, and then to declare them; provided that before they declare those that live on the Heaths, they fhall firft take care to admonish them, either by themselves, or by others of known fidelity, that fo they may do their Duty herein, letting them know if they fail, that they must be declared Excommunicate. The Curates must alfo be fure to obferve who have complyed with this Obligation, putting their Names in a Roll as is ordered in Confeffi on, |