is represented Doc. Luther saith the tokens in the holy supper which men eate drinke with the bodily mouth are not onely bread and wine but also the body and the blood of Christ present in the bread and wine vnseene We say the body and blood of Christ are not the tokens but the betokened heauenly riches which cannot be laid hould on neither fed on by the bodily mouth but onely by faith But the tokens which we shall and can eate and drinke in the supper with our bodily mouthes we say are bread and wine ordained of Christ to this holie vse that through such bodily eating of tokens the spirituall blisse making feeding by the betokened heauenly riches Namely the true body blood of Christ which is performed by faith are represented confirmed and sealed And so in no manner of waies doe wee teach that men doe eate and drinke onely bare bread and wine in the supper as the contentious falsely accuse vs but wee doe teach that men eate and drinke in the supper both bread and wine and also the true body and blood of Christ but with this difference that men eate and drinke the bread and wine with the bodily mouth but the bodie and blood of Christ with the spirituall mouth namely by faith by which onely a man can blessedly take hould on Christ And therefore there is no strife betwixt D. Luther and vs whether we eate and drinke the true body and true blood of Christ in the supper but there is the difference how we eate and drinke the true bodie and true blood of Christ in the supper We say we eate and drinke the true bodie and true blood of Christ in the supper onely spiritually by faith D. Luther D. Martin Luther Tom. 1. fol. 208. Tom. 2. fol 197. tom 3. fol. 487. saith wee doe not onely eate and drinke the true body and blood of Christ in the supper spiritually by faith but also bodily with the mouth That cannot wee beleeue Not that we would not gladly beleeue the word of God but because wee cannot finde in our iudgements The body of Christ is eatē with the mouth of the faithfull vnfaithfull as well of Iudas as of Peter that that is Gods word that wee should eate and drinke the bodie and blood of Christ with our bodilie mouthes D. Luther saith Christ hath said it in that hee tooke the bread and said Take eate this is my body Now dowe gladly beleeue the words of Christ but that the words of Christ should haue such an vnderstanding as D. Luther giues them as if he had said namely In or vnder the bread is my body vnseene and yet really together with it And therefore when you eate the bread with your mouthes so doe you therewith eate my body also with your mouthes it being in or vnder the bread hidden That that should be the meaning of Christ that cannot we beleeue For such a construction runneth against the articles of the Christian faith and the whole holy Scripture therein being plainely testified that Christ hath but one body wherewith he sat at table in their open sightes at the time of the first supper And wherewith hee also in open sight ascended into heauen fortie daies after his resurrection but not much the better if hee hath one body at present seene in heauen and an other vnseene on earth in euery host one But we vnderstand that this is the meaning of Christ when he tooke the bread and spake This is my body which is giuen for you as if he had said that shall bee vnto you a remembrance of my body which I haue giuen for you to death that so I as the right heauenly bread may feede you to euerlasting life or which is to one effect that so I may deliuer you from the euerlasting hunger and misery which else you must haue suffered in hell We vnderstand that that was the meaning of Christ in these words This is my body which is giuen for you Whilest he presently after saith doe it in remembrance of me and whilest in al Sacraments God vsed so to speake he naming the tokens euen so as if they were the betokened treasures themselues For example when he ordained circumcision he said Gen. 17.10 Gen. 17.11 Rom. 4.11 This is my couenant yet was it not otherwise ment then if he had said This is a token or seale of my couenant euen as presently God himselfe declared where he for the words this is my couenant presently vseth these words It shall bee a signe of the couenant betwixt me and thee Also the Easter lamb is called of God the Pascha which is in dutch as much as Passeouer Exod. 12.27 Exod. 12.17 Exod. 13.16 when hee made his deuouring Angell passe by the houses of the children of Israell And yet it was not meant by it as if the Easter lambe were the Passeouer it selfe but that it should bee a token and a remembrance of the Passeouer as the Lord againe himselfe declared where he said This shall bee a token to thee in thy hands and a remembrance before thine eies Euen so doe wee vnderstand that also in this sacrament namely in the holy Supper Christ spake Sacramentally and so said first This is my body which is giuen for you and after added doe such in remembrance of me thereby demonstrating that hee called the bread his crucified body for vs therefore because hee ordained it in remembrance or for a witnesse seale or pledge of his crucified body for vs. In which opinion that confirmeth vs also Ioh. 6. which wee finde in the holy Scripture that Christ most flatly againe and againe casteth away the bodily eating and drinking of his body and blood With these two grounds first Vers 61.62 that hee would ascend to heauen where wee could not sease on him or eate him with our bodily mouths Secondly that also Vers 33.63 such a bodily eating drinking of his body and bloud was not profitable vnto saluation But rather who so doth eat and drinke him spiritually or as hee had presently said before he that commeth to him and beleeueth in him he shal haue euerlasting life and he will raise him vp at the last day Whilst now Christ hath againe and againe cast away expresly the bodily eating and drinking of his body and blood therefore cannot wee beleeue that hee would ordaine against himselfe a bodily eating and drinking of his body and blood in the Supper Those bee our grounds which mooue vs to hold that the words of Christ This is my bodie are not so to bee vnderstood as if the body of Christ were really there present hidden in the bread as they sing hidden in the bread so little but that the bread the same food should be a remembrance or putting vs in minde of the body of Christ which hee gaue vp to death on the crosse for vs as Christ presently himselfe hath cleared and said
vnto you that you shall not resist euill What could be more manifestly in shew said and laid before them and yet neuerthelesse they suffered wrong Euen so in truth are we also wronged whē men broach such feareful odious matters of vs. which a man cannot easily vtter without sinning For example they say of vs that wee teach that God is the cause of sinne and hath a delight and pleasure in sin and helpeth to sin but God knoweth whom no man can deceiue that such blasphemy against God neuer entred into our minds The contentious would wring it out of this that some of ours write that there befalleth nothing without the foreknowledge councell and will of God no not sinne it selfe Now it is certaine our men write thus that there can nothing be done without the foreknowledge councell and will of God whether it be little or great bad or good either in heauen or on earth But they doe not therfore say that God is the cause of sinne or hath delight and pleasure in sinne and helpeth therein But they teach in all their writings the clean contrary that God is not the author of sinne that also hee hath no delight and pleasure in sinne and that he helpeth no man to sinne or doth either secretly or openly prouoke them to it But whereas indeede they doe write that there comes nothing to passe without the foreknowledge councell will of God yea also that which in it selfe is euill and sinne That vnderstand they thus not otherwaies as Luke vnderstands it where he writes of the feareful and great sinne which Herod and Pilate committed against Christ Act. 4.27.28 doing whatsoeuer the hand and councel of God had determined before to be done More cleerely they vnderstand it thus That God is an almighty God and so can hinder all things which he will not suffer to come to passe and that therefore also the euil spirits and men can performe nothing when as God hath not determined it or as Luke saith when that God in his coūcel had not determin'd that it shold come so to passe that no otherwise is the opiniō of our teachers of the foreknowledge of God it is in very truth a right comfortable opinion for wo vnto vs poore folke if the Lord were not so almighty that he before knew all our enemies bad intents and could let them passe or hinder them according to his councell and will How long would the Diuell Pope and Popish confederates suffer vs to liue when that God by his prouidence did not gouerne them and bridled them Euen so do we beleeue of the foreknowledge of God and are assured that no Christian man doth beleeue any otherwise thereof yet will they perswade the people that wee beleeue and say more haynously of the foreknowledge of God then the Iewes Turkes and Heathens We will shew one example more out of which such as feare God vnderstanding and impartiall men may see how hetherto they haue delt with vs. Wee say it is not possible that the elect should perish which they construe vpon vs as if we had said and written he that is elected must be saued doe what he will And on the contrary he that is not elected must bee damned though hee liue so honestly and holily as he can possibly But we testifie before God and before Christ Iesus who is to come againe to Iudge the quicke and the dead that such an opinion neuer came into our minde we say indeed that the elect cannot bee lost And why should we not say so Christ saith it himselfe Mat. 24. Chapt. And D. Luther saith so also in innumerable many places But that we should say that the elect cannot perish with this addition doe they what they will that will neuer bee shewed in our writings But that is our opinion and for that we say that the elect cannot perish 1. Pet. 1.5 Luke 22.32 because God keepeth them by his power in faith to saluation and though they sometimes fall yet they lye not therin but he raiseth them againe by repentance for whom God hath elected to euerlasting life those hath he not otherwaies elected Ephe. 1.4.5 Rom. 8.30 Ezek. 36.27 then with this conditiō that he would giue them faith in Christ and that by his holy spirit hee would make them new creatures and such people as should walke in his commandements Therefore are they no elect that doe what they will but onely they that haue a harty purpose and an earnest intent to do what God will that is our opinion herein Concerning the person of Christ Of the person of Christ thereof doe wee beleeue no otherwaies then the other Protestant Churches vniformely doe beleeue namely that Christ is true God and man in one vnseparable person That is the common consent of ours and all other Protestant Churches also But that the body of Christ should bee euery where that is the priuate opinion of some few contentious ones whom not onely many Lutherans Churches as Brunswick Pomern Holst Marke and Denmark speake against but also most of their owne auditory giue no credit vnto it as a man may perceiue if he come into conference with them Setting then aside this priuate opinion of some few contentious ones about the vbiquity of the body of Christ wee are not inferiour in the doctrine of the person of Christ as also of the euerlasting foreknowledge of God to the other Protestant Churches And to D. Luther himselfe in all things Of the holy supper and in all points agreeable And so there remaineth no more besides wherein there is any difference betwixt vs and D. Luther then alone that point of the holy supper And yet differ wee not in the whole point but onely the least part thereof is in controuersie D. Martin Luther postie de anno 1529. in the winter part fol. 102. b. The principall part in the holy supper is the spirituall eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ which onely maketh a man right and blessed before God the bodily eating and drinking is but a token that maketh no man right and blessed before God Euen as the horse can neuer be satisfied with painted oates saith D. Luther Now we in euery thing agree with D. Luther in the spirituall eating and drinking of the bodie and blood of Christ and we beleeue as well as he that it is done by faith When one feedeth himselfe with the comfortable promise of God that hee gaue his sonne to death for him and for his sake will bestow vpon him euerlasting life through which faith a man is so incorporated into Christ that he is as it were one bread and one meate with him as D. Luther saith Whilst wee then on both sides agree in the spirituall eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ wherefore will we seuer our selues and condemne each other for the signes sake by which the spirituall eating and drinking
Doe this in remembrance of me that is take this bread and eat it in remembrance that I as the true heauenly breade gaue vp my body for you euen to death on the crosse and haue spilt my bloud for the forgiuenes of your sinnes and shall be vnto you a true meat drinke to euerlasting life which meat and drinke neuerthelesse you must eat by true faith and let slip into your hearts that it may comfort wash quicken your selues both in life and death Admit now that we did erre with such a construction of ours yet did not such an error concerne the grounds of saluation for Saluation dependeth not in the bodily eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ but saluation standeth in the spirituall eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ as D. Luther confesseth himselfe therefore and if indeede we did erre about the bodily eating and drinking of the bodie and blood of Christ yet neuerthelesse did we not ouerthrow the ground of saluation with such an error Wherefore they haue no sufficient and vrgent cause for this points sake namely for so much as concerneth the holy supper wherefore they should condemne vs as heathens and with such condemning any longer hinder the highly needefull agreement of the Protestant Churches Intruth it were well to be wished Rom. 12.16 Rom. 15.5 1. Cor. 1.10 that we were all of one mind and vsed one forme of reasoning euen all of vs together of all and euery point of Christian Religion as also the Apostle Paul in diuers places most truely admonisheth vs therunto But it is vnpossible that wee can euer bring it perfectly to that passe in this life 1 Cor. 13.9 For we know but in part and God giueth alwaies more light in spirituall matters to one then to another as a man may notably see in the writings of the old fathers whereof not anie of them agreede in all things together If then wee shall not loue one another before and as brethren hould together till such time as we haue one vnderstanding and meaning altogether in all godly matters then shall wee neuer in this life loue one another and hould together as brethren Now then this is the very Pith of the whole Christian Religion that we doe out of a pure hart and a good conscience and faith vnfained first loue God who gaue his sonne to death for vs and then also our selues that we loue each other Therefore Paul giues vs not onely this commaund that wee should bee of one minde in all things and should be diligent to vse one forme but he giues vs also yet another commaundement to this effect that though there were some difference found in vs about the vnderstanding of godly matters we should not breake the bond of loue and part the vnity of the spirit but beare patiently the one with the others ignorance and weakenesse Paules words are these Phil. 3.15.16 Let vs therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if yee be otherwise minded God shall reueale euen the same vnto you Neuerthelesse in that whereunto we are come let vs proceede by one rule that we may minde one thing That is the commaundement of the Apostle Paul namely that we seperate not our selues for one point or other but giue place to God whosoeuer he bee that at the present houlds any vnfit thing to make it more knowne vnto him in his time And in the meane time walke peaceably as is saide according to the common rule or ground of Christianity wherein by the grace of God we do agree This command of the Apostle Paul louing brethren wee intreate you to consider and to begin from this time forth to liue brotherly and peaceably with vs. We do not desire that you should for our sakes be silent in any thing you hold to be truth or not to confute our grounds if you can do it But onely this is our desire that you would for those errors sake which we hould in your opiniō of the holy supper not so shamefully raile vpon vs and condemne vs in your sermons and writings When you shall but doe so then is the peace readily accomplished For we desire not to condemne you But when you liue godlily according to the knowledge which God hath giuen vnto you then hould wee you for children of God for brethren in Christ Iesus for all the errors which wee are perswaded that you haue about the holy supper And therefore it resteth in you louing brethren you can helpe the Churches of God if you so please And there is iust cause why you should please being it is so Gods pleasure and also our great necessitie requires it for it is vnpossible that ours namely the Protestant Churches should be able long to stand if we do not quickly make peace one with another and lay downe the vnhappie contention that hetherto hath beene betwixt vs. For by such strife doe we make our selues naked of all armor which wee should haue both from God and man against the Pope Psal 133. It so being that God will not assist the contentious but if wee agree and call vpon him with an humble spirit then will he bestow vpon vs his grace and blessing And indeede the power of the Protestant Princes and States is also not sufficient to counteruaile the Popedomes if they seuer themselues into two or three sides and the one part shall helpe to rippe vp the other As touching the common man he vnderstands almost nothing any more now of the abominations of the Popedome for that he heares almost nothing else from the Pulpet but onely railings vpon the Caluinists yea he heares that according to their teachers suggestions the Papists are not by much so bad as the Caluinists and therefore is it not possible that in the time of necessity hee should haue a sound zeale to fight against the Popedome but in time he will hould as much of one Religion as of another And grant it that we should neuer be bodily set vpon by the Papists yet are we at this very present so set vpon by them spiritually as neuer before the like The Iesuites plot subtilely day and night how they may make their bad cause good with serpent-like writings and on the contrary side bring our good cause into all euill suspicion not onely to the common man but also and that most especially to all great Princes We in the meane time are together by the eares and the youth of the Protestants study almost nothing else but how the Lutherans may match with the Caluinists and the Caluinists with the Lutherans that is God be mercifull vnto vs almost all the diuinity in our times of the Protestants and should not a man also find a great number amongst the Preachers who doe not well and groundedlie know whereon dependeth the certaine grounds of strife betwixt vs and the Papists and wherfore our forefathers did separate themselues
from them or what grounds they maintained against them To what manner of end these things will at last reach vnto we intreat all vnderstanding people to consider And when yet they will not thinke vpon it who ought most of all to thinke vpon it then the Lord God grant that the Princes and Lords together with their peacelouing councells may for that end once open their owne eies It is high time and if it come not to passe speedily then will the mischiefe which the Pope hath intended against vs most assuredly not long be kept out from vs. The God of Peace who hath euer hetherto taken his Church into his fatherly protection hee bee pleased furthermore also to take pitty vpō the same and to stirre vp godly people who may rightly consider and take to hart what that is that Christ saith Mat. 6.5 happy are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God To the almighty true God and Father together with the sonne and holy Ghost the onely and alone true God be thanks honour and praise both now and for euermore Amen A SHORT ABSTRACT TAKEN out of the warning about the Iesuites bloodthirsty plots which was put in print at Tubingen by Doctor LVCAS OSIANDER DOctor Lucas Osiander published a booke at Tubingen vnder this title Warning about the Iesuits bad practises bloodthirsty plots c. In the which booke euen from the Iesuites owne pictures writings hee manifestly noteth and testifieth that the Iesuites together with the Popes confederates haue wholly concluded that they will no more dispute with vs out of the word of God but would consume and destroy all those with fire and sword by the helpe of the worldly potentates who were fallen from the Pope And that they are determined to put in practise such their bloud thirsty plots and bad practises so soon as may possibly be brought to passe that most especially in our beloued fatherland the Dutch Nation In the same booke are two things most especially to be marked the one is that the Papists are euen as great enemies to the Lutherans as to the Caluinists and desire to consume and destroy the one side as wel as the other the other is That the religious peace would nothing at all stay the Papists from their intents when they can but come to practise them These two things doe not all men in Dutchland beleeue but Doctor Lucas Osiander doth constantly beleeue them as indeed the truth is not otherwaies Doctor Lucas Osiander his words are as follow Pap. 5. Although Satan be a thousand fold more subtle spirit and much more secret and crafty together with the children of this world in their practises then the children of light in their businesse yet for all that our Lord God oftentimes so blindeth Satan that he cannot in all things bee secret and close in the wickednes which hee goeth about but hee tickleth himselfe so with his intended practises that men of vnderstanding can marke yea and as it were lay hold on what he hath in his mind Euen so hath Satan in the abouenamed paintings of his trustie beloued the Iesuites so let his sharpe clawes peepe out that a man may gripe how they haue hitherto practised that the highest and chiefest Potentates in Christendome if they would follow their mindes might fall vpon the Euangelicall Protestant States of the Augsburges Confession and distroy them and consume the faith of the Euangelicall professors for it is manifest by the counsel of Trent in the which our Christian Euangelicall Religion is most vnreasonably railed on and condemned for herisie and in like manner out of the manifould poisenous writings of the Iesuites which they haue these diuers yeares published against the sound Doctrine of the Agusburges confession what people they hould for heritickes and for enemies of the Christian Churches in their opinion which in their mindes as wilde beasts should destroy the vineyard of the Christian Churches which also should bee strangled and distroyed according to the Iesuites desires by great and high intituled Potentates And the Iesuites vnderstand by the same beasts The Iesuits haue sworne the death of the Lutherans as well as the Caluinists not onely those who are fallen from the Romish Religion and yet agree not rightly with the Augsburges confession but all those who will not haue to doe with the Papists Religion misdoings and Idolatrie And especially those who haue bound themselues constantly to the Christian Augsburges confession and therefore they haue also put vnder the beasts some of those ensignes which the Protestant Princes vse to beare in their Armes And when they should get the gace into their owne hands they would out of all doubt hold the one as the other and destroy them all who would not acknowledge the Pope of Rome for the vicar of Christ nor worship him for their earthly God c. Also Pag. 10. If the Iesuites had but one drop of Christian bloud in them and one sparke of the meeke spirit of Iesus they would not onelie in right not hate vs or persecute vs but loue vs with all their hearts and in time of necessity euen wager their verie liues for vs. As Iohn teacheth in his Epistle where he saith wee should euen lay downe our liues for the brethren therfore the Iesuites haue no reasonable cause to persecute vs if they were true Iesuites that is were faithfull Christians And though there be here and there some Christians N. B. The Caluinists are also true Christiās most especiallie in France and the low Countries who are found to haue falne from the Pope and neuerthelesse doe not agree with vs in euery article of Christian religion whose error we indeed cannot also allow of as being against the holy Scripture yet is not this any Christian way or meanes to helpe the Church of God and to maintaine pure Religion that the same should be destroyed with the sword And the Iesuites should in all reason consider that looke how often the same Christians defend one Erronious Article that they the Iesuites haue alwaies tenne Erronious Popish Articles which they both beleeue and hold which yet they shall neuer be able to defend to the end of the world and therefore they might very well carry water with them vpon one colestaffe And besides that consider that vnder the aforenamed Christians there are certaine thousand simple people who haue neuer bene better instructed that if they heard of a better religion in their Lands they looking to it thēselues would take it in thankfulnes And so there is a great number vnder them like to those of whom the Lord said to the Prophet Ionas that they know not the difference betwixt the right hand or the left And therefore if the Iesuites had that Christian loue by which Christ willeth that his disciples should bee knowne in their hearts they would not cast out the child with the bath or rend vp the good wheat with the weeds much lesse so lay their platformes that the childe should be murthered in the mothers bellies as is manifested by their prouocations in France at Paris Orliance and other places vpon Bartholmew day Anno. 1574. c. practised where no woman with child was spared But the Iesuites would gladly begin the play with those simple Christians who are not in al things sufficiently informed N. B. The Iesuites would begin with the Caluinists that so they might end it with the Lutherans M. Lucas Ostanders glosse The Iesuites esteeme one Euangelist Christian as the other whereby they might end it with those who do in euery point hold the pure doctrine of the Augsburges confession For the Iesuites esteeme the one as they doe the other Who will not make himselfe partaker of their Idolatry iugling and false Romish Religion hee is adiudged of them to death These Christians which faile men ought to informe out of the word of God and make them to vnderstand better the truth but for the cause of Religion which they doe neuerthelesse maintaine quietly and reasonably should they not be put to death Also page 14. If we had no better testimony against the Romish Antichrist the Pope that hee is from his Father the Diuell yet were it sufficiently witnessed by this that he hath in the cause of Religion stirred vp so much shedding of blood and yet at this present day doth most eagerly prouoke and desire to driue on the Potentates thereto that they might staine their hands in the innocent bloud of honest Christians And to effect this The Iesuites care for no religious peace hee vseth his Scoutwatches the Diuels posts the Iesuites who vnder the shew of great holinesse possesse the hearts of many people and desire to bring the matter to that passe that a fearefull cutting of throats and butchery might be set abroach in Dutchland and other kingdomes the peace of Religion be broken and that the stronger should put the weaker in the sacke In like manner also before this time one that thought himselfe a Lawyer but a bad and false Christian Doctor George Eder mocked the Religious peace in manifest writing put in print and drue the same onely to a toleration which neither could nor should be of force Such folke hath the subtill Diuell kept till the last ende of thē game and made his cards of helps that through them he might set a worke misery and necessity And therfore whilest there is not onely so much to be gathered out of the abouenamed pictures of the Iesuites but also out of their writings practises and plots that their intent and purpose reacheth to that end to destroie the Protestant Religion and Estates By this it is manifest that the murthering spirit namely the Diuellrideth them and will not let them keepe holy day till that they when the Lord shall tolerate them haue set a worke a fearefull bloodbath Therefore is it much better to hould nothing then to be such people who desire to ouerthrow the peace of Religion and also the worldly peace and to be set a worke to the furthering of Misery and necessity FINIS