these words inforces not a literall sense that hee is a verye doore vine or rocke Ergo these wordes inforce not literallye that the breade is his bodie The speaker is one the forme is one and there is nothing in the one which is not in the other to inforce a literall sense Of this see more in the answere of Maister William Reinoldes fourth replye to Maister Robert Bruce cap. 19. hereafter pag. 96. This ground being laide that these wordes are as opportune â—o a figure as to the letter wee ioyne with these men vpon a new conclusion that the figure is moste consonant to the truthe and agreeable with the scriptures To begin then my first argument is taken from the name and nature of a Sacrament No sacrament is the same thing which it signifieth The bread wine in the Lordes Supper are sacraments of Christs body and bloode Ergo they are not the thing which they signifie that is they are not the body blood of Christ The first part of this argument is a rule of nature deliuered vs be a common consent of all the learned before the dayes of ignorance and papistrie Let August serue for all sacramenta saith he sunt signa rerum aliud existentia aliud significantia Sacraments are signes of thinges being in deede one thing and in signification an other The answere here that the accidents are the signe and that the substance is changed is a tricke of Romane iuglarye without warrant of the word or testimony of any father for eight hundreth yeares after the institutioÌ„ of this sacrament Of this see more hereafter in defence of Maister Robert Bruce against Maister William Reinold cap. 19. reason 2. My next reason shal be from the analogie of the sacraments of the new olde couenant The sacraments in the new couenant are the same to Christe now commed that the sacraments of the olde couenant were to Christe to come But the sacraments of the old couenant were types and figures of Christ to come Ergo the sacraments of the new couenant are types and figures of Christ alreadie commed The proposition Paull confirmeth The fathers did all eate the same spirituall meate and did all drinke the same spirituall drinke And Aug. sacramenta iudaeorum in signis diuersa fuerunt a nostris in rebus significatis paria That is the sacraments of the Iewes did differ from ours in signes but are the same in signification The assumption the aduersarie cannot denye Thirdly I reason out of Christs own words after that hee had absolued the hole action and his disciples had al eate of the bread drunk of the wyne I wil saith he no more drinke of this fruite of the vine while I drink it laying this foundation which I hope no man can denie that the breade is no other wayes his bodiâ— then the wine is his blood The fruite of the vine is not the naturall bloode of Christ. But that which he had consecrated his disciples had drunken he calleth that the fruite of the vine Ergo that which hee consecrated they had drunken was not his naturall blood be like reason that which they had eaten was not his naturall and reall bodie The proposition being a negatiue of things disparate and diuerse is not deniable and the assumption is a text vttered be the mouth that could not lye Fourthly the order of the institution Iesus the night that hee was betrayed tooke breade and giuing thankes broke it and saide take eate this is my body that is broken for yow yealdes vs this argument That which hee broke was the same which they did eate But Christ tooke breade and broke it not his essentiall bodie Ergo that which they did eat was bread and not his essentiall bodie The proposition is manifest in the wordes as they lye he tooke bread hee brake it that is breade hee bade his disciples eate that same bread and of it saide this is my body which is broken for you That which hee tooke hee broke that which hee broke he gaue them that which he gaue them they did eate and that which they did eate he calleth it his bodie To applye the verbes following to an other thing theÌ„ that which the first verbe is ioyned with is to teare Christs wordes in sunder and to parte the thinges which hee spake coniunctly The assumption is the very text And further when hee broke the breade Christ had not vttered the wordes bee vertue whereof these men holdes that the breade is changed into the bodie of Christ. Fifthly out of the same wordes weâ— drawe this argument The thing which he gaue them was his essentiall bodie as the breaking of it was the breaking of his bodie But the breaking of the bread was not the breaking of his body for our sinnes as it was done vpon the crosse â—rgo the bread was not that same essentiall body which was broken on the crosse but in a figure The proposition is true because as hee saith of the breade it is his bodie so hee saieth with one breath that it is his bodie broken this is my bodie broken for you The assumption is true because the bodie of Christ was not broken before his passion and because the breade was broken in peeces which his bodie was not Sixtly it is saide in the sixt of Iohn He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him Which words yealdes vs this reason Hee that eateth the flesh and drinketh the bloode of Christ dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him But all that eate the sacrament dwelleth not in Christ nor Christ in them Ergo not all that eateth the sacrament eateth the flesh and drinketh the bloode of Christ. The proposition is the text the assumption the great heap of vnworthie receauers doth proue This Peter Lumbard the great maister of sentences alleadges out of August Qui discordat a Christo non manducat carnem eius nec sanguinem bibit et si tanterei sacramâ—nâ—um ad iudicium sibi quotidie accipit He that followeth not Christ eateth not his flesh nor drinketh his bloode how-be-it hee dailie receaue the sacrament of so great a mysterie to his damnation Which sentence afterward in B. and C. hee laboureth to answere without sense or sentence That the wicked eateth the proper flesh of christ which was borne of the Virgine Marie but not the spirituall flesh of Christ which is receaued onely be faith vnderstanding We reade in the scripturs but of one flesh of Christ which was borne of the Virgine Marie suffered on the crosse for our sinnes Of this flesh saieth Christ whosoeuer eateth dwelleth in me and I in him But the wicked saith Lumbard eateth this fleshe and so bee his worthye sentence the wicked dwelleth in Christ Christ in theÌ„ The faith which beleeueth or vnderstanding which conceaueth anye other flesh of Christ then this beleeueth and vnderstandeth the thing that
writtinges he might haue beene vndoctored this dozen yearâ—â— and if hee profite no more then he hath done hee might haue wanted a Doctour hoode so long as he liueth Of all the vnleaâ—ned books 〈…〉 I red of all the vnconstante and wand ring stiles running aâ— the â—â—ubiect on euerie â—ighte occasion I giue it the first place Hetherto I â—aue laide downe what little reason they haue to denye the wordes of the institution to bee â—iguratiue Now beside the seauen argumente in the beginning And the sounde arguments mightely laide in bee M. Robert Bruce and weakely warded be M. William Rainoldes I will open what mater of inconuenience what forcing of textes what coyning of figures what monsters in nature sense and reason might haue chocked this monster in the cradle if a drifte of heresie raised bee the enemie of truthe had not dazaled the eyes of men and driuen them into the wildernesse of erroure To beginne at the lightest to maintaine that there is no figure in the institution they are driuen to force a stranger figure on the wordes of Paull Hâ—â— that cateth of this breade and drinketh of this cup c. Compelling the spirite of God in which the Apostle wrote with rashe and inconsiderate â—duise bee the names of breade and cup for wine to feede the erroure of the sense againste the truthe of faith if it were as they sâ—y not bread and wyne but the very body and blood of Christ. As is saide alredie page 13. in my seuent reason Secondlye in the wordes of our Sauiour I will drinke no more of the fruite of the vine they shape two monstruous figures leauing it indifferent to take which a man liketh best Either that bee the wine is vnderstoode the bloode of Christ vnder the shew of wine or else that the kingdome of God is the time of the gospell in the which we drinke the verie blood of Christ in the Sacrament Thirdelye the wordes of our Sauiour He that easteth my flesh and drinketh my bloode dwelleth in me and 〈◊〉 him They ar compelled either to mangle miserably or else to denye them and make the incredilous to eate the bodie of Christe which neither dwelleth in Christe nor Christ in them Fourthly the Article of our beleefe and the place of the Actes That the heauens must containe him vntil the 〈◊〉 that all thinges be restored They are driuen to seeke some defense bee hooke and crooke how Christ maye not onely bee in heauen at the righte hande of his father but also in the Sacramente betweene the handes of a gredie preiste reddie to eate him vp stoup and roupe These foure textes they are compelled to mangle to maintaine a literall sense in one But behoulde more absurditie Firste they will compell vs vnder paine of damnation to beleeue that the bodie of Christ hauing all properties of a humane bodie sinne onely excepted is handled and not felt eaten and not tasted looked on and not seene in the Sacrament Secondlye that the accidentes of bread that is sauour colour taste hardnesse moistnosse c are in the Sacrament without the substance of breade where to they are inseparablye anneâ—ed Thirdely that these same accidentes hauing no nature nor power to feede are ordained be Christ to bee the signe of the spirituall breade that feedeth our soules to life euerlasting Fourtlye that the substance of the breade is changed into the verie reall and naturall substance of Christs bodie that was borne of the Virgine Marye and suffered on the crosse for the sinnes of man Fistly that accidentes doth nonrish and feede the bodie because the substance doth nourish bee meanes of accidentes Sixtly that the bodie of Christe being finite and locall as it was when hee walked on the waters taught in the shipe and died vpon the Crosse is now in heauen at the righte hande of his father and also on all the altares in the worlde in the handes of all the prestes in the bellies of all that eateth him and in the coffers of al that will keepe him in store for an euill daye Seuently that in this mater of transubstantiation vnder paine of bothe deathes that is temporall and eternall we are bound to beleeue nether nature sense nor reason And that eightly heerefore how-be-it we see it to mould rott and consume we must bee persuaded in faith that it is the immortall bodie of our Lorde and Sauiour Iesus Christ. Nynthly when Aug. or anye other of the fathers calleth it a figure wee muste beleeue that it is bothe the figure of Christs bodye and Christes bodye it selfe Tenthly that the partes of Christes bodie are not distinguished as eie from eie hand from hande heade from foote or with reuerence bee it spoken taile from tongue but all confused together in the compasse of the rounde waâ—er Eleuenthly that the preist is the creatore of his owne creatore and eateth him when he hath created him Twelfthlye that Christe hauing but one bodie the people consumeth him as many bodies in one daye as communicantes receaueth the Sacramente in all the worlde Thirtenthlie that the substance of Christs naturall bodie maye be made of other substance then the substance of his mother the virgine Marie My wit can not comprehende the absurdities of this absurditie On manye they are not yet agreed among themselues Firste if an oulde wife or anye other superstitious bodie keepe that sacred breade for a neede and chance to lose it which may well fall out Thomas Aquinas Alexander de Hales and Gerson holdeth that a mouse hog or doge if they finde it and eate it findeth and eateth the verie body of Christ Bonauentura and sundry others counteth it more honest and reasonable that they eate it not But Peter Lumbard the grand maister of catholicke conclusiones leaueth it to God what they eate and with all thinkes that it may be saide that brute beastes eate not the body of Christ. Some will haue the mouse if shee can be gotten burnt aâ—d buried aboute the altar Others will haue her opened and some well stomached preist to eate that which is founde in her mawe or else to reserue it in the tabernacle till it naturallie â—nsume In this kinde one highlie commendeth one Goderanus a preist for lapping vp the vomet of a leper man who had not long before receaued the Sacrament Secondly in the wordes of the institution This is my bodye Gerson saith that the demonstratiue pronoune this demonstrateth the substance of the bread Occam saith that it demonstrateth the bodie of Christ. Thomas Aquinas saieth that it demonstrateth the thing contained vnder the forme of the breade Hokot saith that it signifieth a thing betweene the bodie of Christ and the bread which is nether this nor that but common to both Durand saith that it signifieth nothing but is set materialiter After all commeth Steuen Gardinar Bishope of Winchester and turning his iudgment for once hee thought it
beleeuâ— that if GOD had showen so notable a iudgment on Iohn Knoxe in the pulpite and presence of such a frequent assemblie as vseth to be in the Church of Edinburgh the people woulde not haue onely abhorred his doctrine but stoned him selfe out of the towne Or can anye man that hath a mans harte that is reason and vnderstanding beleeue that if Iohn Caluin had vsed that manifest iuglarie which ye are not ashamed to publish in the face of the Sun in the congregation at Geneua that that people who found the moyen in a priuate grudge to banish him their towne for certaine yeares would not on such a notorious cause as that haue either stoned him in the streetes or expelled him at the leaste with shame for euer But this is a note of gods iudgment that hee hath so besotted your senses that you haue not the wittes to caste a probable collour vpon your lyes This was an other cause that made me leaue my purpose to confute your booke For if I had gone fordward I sawe that I was to meete with many slanders which was not worth the hearing nor reading and needed no other to confute them then the mouth that toulde them if the hearer had but halfe a nose to smell alye as whote as a foxe Yet hauing spent many dayes and nights in gathering materialles to that worke I resolued not to lose them but with some trauell contriued them in this forme which you see hoping that the power of reason and truth might not onelie staye such from that erroure as your sectaries had made to doubt but also make you and them to doubt of that which you teach so confidently if you would read as aduisedly as you haue bequeathed your selfe vnconsideratlye to that abhomination And heare I charge you in the bowels and mercies of lesus Christ as you will answere in the great daye of the Lorde if you doubt indeed which is not likely for anye matter that wee can see in your bookes to haue turned you or left the truth for any particular to open your eyes againe to the light and to returne to the grace from which you are fallen I haue heere deduced the truth of this question whereon standeth the foundatioÌ„ of the Romane religion from Christ to our owne times I haue taken this paines partlie for our people partelye for you to whome I wishe the good that a Scholar should to his maister And therefore I praye you as you loue to liue for euer to leaue the way of death euerlasting Otherwayes in the court of conscience where truth will be reuealed the popes indulgence will doe no good I must beare witnesse of your wilfulnes and proude contempt of the reuealed truthe The Lorde giue you a harte to loue him better then men Yours if you be Christes ALEXANDER HVME The diduction from the fountaine OVR Lord and maister Iesus Christe that night that hee was betrayed into the hands of the highe preiste to continue in his Church a solemne remembrance of his blessed passion which hee was shortly to suffer instituted at his last supper with his disciples after that hee had finished the lawe of the pascall Lamb in place there of a newe Sacrament in the Elementes of Breade and Wine In this and with this after an vnspeakable maner be a secret diuine efficacie hee deliuered also to their Faith his precious Bodie and Blood to vnite them and al that should succeede them to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh to nourish their soules vnto eternal life In this mystery there is such a secret coÌ„iunctioÌ„ betweene the elements and his precious flesh that in al ages it hath exercised the hearts and minds of men in the deep contemplation thereof some to life and some to eternall death and condemnation For seeing the glorie and excellencie of our omnipotent God consisteth in the highest perfection of mercie and iustice his infinite wisdome hath tempered his worde and Sacraments to minister matter to both Therefore betweene his elect whose heartes he illuminates with the light of his spirite and those whome he hath left to the iudgment of their owne fenses and illusions of errour there hath risen out of this cloude greate stormes to exercise his Church that it might not lye sleeping in the sonne of securitie It is fortie yeares and morâ— since the Lordâ— beganne to sowe in this countrie being then ouerwhelmed in the mists of ignorance the seede of his eternall trueth Now seeing our vnthankfulnes hee suffereth the enemie to repaire home againe and to sowe darnel in his haruest He is busie and we are secure Wherefore to meete his practises and to arme the simple against his sophismes I haue chosen this argument of reall presence as of greatest importance to confute all papistrie For if the naturall bodie of our Sauiour is not in the sacrament as they call it of the altare they haue no sacrifice for the quick and deade and wanting that their market of masses this fiue hundreth yeares hath beene a faire of false wares In this disputation I will vse no rethoricall colloures to fill mens eareâ— with wordes but shortely will ayme my arguments to the poynt hoping that in all sounde iudgementes weight of reason will be more effectuall then the ratling sound of emptie words I will deduce the truthe of this poynte out of the well of truth and then will proue the Church to haue receiued it from Christ and his Apostles and notwithstanding the craft and crueltie of the enemie to haue kept it sincere and pure to our times Lord shew to me the the light of thy truth put weight in my wordes and force in may arguments to beare thy truth through the middest of thy enemies and to confounde the wisdome of the wise Our Lord and Sauiour at the institution of this Sacrament tooke breade and after that hee had giuen thankes broke it and gaue it to his disciples saying Thus is my body which is broken for you this doe ye in remembrance of me The wordes this is my bodye the Church of Roome taketh literallie â—ffirming that the breade is turned into the very natural reall body of christ hauing no nature thereof but collour sauour taste and other inseparable accidents Wee on the other side take them figuratiuelie denying that there is anye change of the substance but that the bread remaineth bread representing to our soules the bodie of Christ to feede our soules to eternall life As for the wordes them selues without other inforcements they are capable of both senses we grant that if both scripture nature did not denye they maye be taken literallie Againe that they may be taken figuratiuely if the peruersnesse of the aduersarie will not grant other scripturs in the same forme will easilie conuince He that saide of the bread This is my bodie saide likewise of him selfe I am a vine I am a doore and Paull saith the rock vvas Christe But
neuer was Of the wicked Paull saith hee that eateth this breade and drinketh of this cuppe vnworthely eateth and drinketh his owne damnation He saith not hee that eateth the bodie drinketh the bloode of Christ vnworthely And heare I dare lay my heade which I will not giue for the popes heade and his triple Crowne too that all the Schooles in Roome and Remes shall neuer proue be the Scripture that the body of Christ can be eaten vnworthely Howe oft doth hee promise himselfe in Iohn eternall life sumtime to him that eateth his flesh sometime to him that beleeueth Whereof it is manifest that none eateth his flesh vnworthely seeing that all that eateth of it shal haue eternal life This besides the place quoted be Lumbard that worthy Fatder August in Iohn tract 26. striketh dead Sacramentum quibusdam ad vitam quibusdam ad mortem sumitur res vero cuâ—us est sacramentum omnibus ad vitani nulli ad mortem That is some receaueth the sacrament to life some to death but that whereof it is the sacrament bringeth life to all death to none Seuenthly in the fore cited wordes of Paull He that â—ateth of this breade and drinketh of this cuppe vnworthelie eaâ—eth and drinketh his owne damnation We find this argument The elements in the Sacraments remaine that which Paull be the spirit of God doth call chem But Paull be the spirit of god doth cal them bread and wine and that after the consecration or else they coulde not bee receaued vnworthely nor drawe on so heauy a iudgment as to be guilty of the Lords body and blood Ergo the elements in the Sacrament remaineth breade and wine and are not changed into the naturall bodie and blood of Christ. Heare the base shift that the Apostle vseth the names which they seeme for the names which they are will not houlde for that were to feede the errour of the fenses and to brangle the foundation of faith which thing bee farre from this Apostle who trauâ—lled so faithfullye and discreit ye 〈◊〉 Apostleshipe Heare thou hast seauen argumentes gentle reader thâ— weakest of all which if wee hade no more were sufficient to beare out this cause with greater probability then any that our aduersarie hath to the contrary The firste thirde fifth and sixth concludeth the negatiue that the breade and wine are not the reale and essentiall bodie of our Sauiour The second proueth that they are types anâ— figures of Christ exhibited for the ransome of our sinnes The fourth and seuenth that the bread and wine remaineth in their owne natures and are not transubstantâ—aâ—ted as the Church of Rome laboureth â—o earnestly to bring the worlde to beleeue And so of these seuen arguments four erefutes the aduersarie and three confirmes the truthe Nowe that the Church maintained this truth as she receaued it from Christ and his Apostles for more then fiue hundreth years after Christ I wil proue bee the the testimonies of the fathers who liued and taught the Church in that age And heare I woulde praye the reader not to mistake me I alleadge not these testimonies to confirme this truth as not sufficiently proued already or to ad more authoritie to the testimonies of the scripture for we acknowledge the authoritie of the word of God to haue that Maiestie that if all the world did say against it yet it remained the certaine trueth of the eternall God who is trueth it selfe and can not lye And wee greatly lament the miserie of this age wherein there is so many fouÌ„d and of them some who knew the truth to oppose them selues against so manifest a light But seeing bee the peruersnes of man and malice of the deuill it is controuerted in my simple iudgment the consent of the Church is no small inducement to indifferentmen and a great slap in the aduersaries saill who beares the world in hand that they saill before the wind and that all the fathers of the primitiue Church doth rowe in their bardge Which confident assertion how false it is I hope with gods good help to make it manifest and to proue be their owne wordes that none of the fathers did euer know that transubstantiated monster which was whelped in the counsell of Rome fiue hundreth yeares after them and after that fostered in the bosome of that Church To beginne Tertullian who liued in the yeare two hundreth saieth of the eating of Christ in the Sacrament Auditu deuoâ—andus est intellectu ruminandus et fide digerendus That is bee hearing he is to bee eaten be vnderstanding chawed bee faith digested Chrysostom teacheth the same Magnus iâ—â—e panis qui replet mentem non ventrem This is the great bread which filles the minde and not the bellie And August Quid dentem et ventrem paraâ— crede et manducasti Why preparest thou thy teethe and thy bellie beleeue and thou hast eaten Cyprian saith esus eius carnis eâ—t quadam aviditas et desiderium manendi in Christo Quod est esus carni hoc est fides animae non dentes ad mordendum acuimus sed fide sinceva sanctum panem edinms The eating of his flesh is a certaine gredinesse and desire to dwell in Christe As eating is to the flesh so is faith to the soule We sharpe not our teethe to bruse but faith to eate that sacred bread Basilius saith est quoddam spirituale os interni hominis quo pascitur recipiens panem vitae qui descendit do caelo There is a spirituall mouth of the inward man bee which he is fed who eates the bread that came downe from heauen Be the testimonies of which fathers it is most cleere and apparant that the Church then tooke the eating of Christs flesh and drinking his bloode to bee a spirituall action of the soule not a bodily action of the mouth that it is eaten be faith not with the teethe and digested into the minde not into the bellie and foullâ—stomache of the receauer Of sacraments in generall August saith in sacramentis videndum est non quid sint sed quid ostendant signa enim rerum sunt aliud existentia aliud significantia in sacraments it is to bee noted not what they are but what they meane so they are signes of thinges signyfiing one thinge and in deede an other Of figures that they are vsuall in the scripture and that the name of the figure is set for the thinge figured and contrariwayes of the thinge for the figure he saith Solet res quae significat eius rei quam significat nomine appellari Hinc dictum erat petra erat Christus Non dixit petra significat Christum sed tanquam boc esset quodâ—vtique per substantiam non erat The thinge which signifieth vseth to be called many times be the name that it signifieth Hereupon it is saide that Christ was the rocke he saide not that the rock signifieth Christe but as if