all such conceits or murmuring by occasion of that doctrine of Christ written of those words of his whereat they so stumbled in his third booke of christian doctrine Chap. 16. saying thus That saying of Christ except ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man drinke his bloode ye haue no life c. seemeth to commend an heinous thing and a wicked and therefore it is a figure commaunding vs to be partakers of Christes passion and to keepe in our mindes to our great comfort and profit that his flesh was crucified and wounded for vs. But I am not ignorant that these men would seeme to mislike the Capernaits opinion as much as we and that therefore they labour to put an infinite difference betwixt their fansie of eating his flesh and drinking his bloode and this of theirs For they imagined say they that then they should feede vpon them visiblie and by piece-meale as they did of other their vsuall meat and drinke whereas they purpose them to be fed on inuisibly and wholly But alas what a poore difference is this as though it were not as much against the lawe of God the law of all nations and nature also knowing it to eate and drinke mans flesh and bloode vnseene as seene all at a morsell or at a sup as by many morsels and suppes If yet they will needes vrge this their reall presence and their mouth-eating really of Christ how will they auoyde the daunger then that that generall and vniuersall proposition of Christ will bringe them vnto saying as we reade he did Mat. 15.17 What soeuer entreth into the mouth goeth into the bellie is cast out into the draught c Euen this hath caused many both as learned as any of them and farre more ancient to vnderstand the eating of Christ to be by the mouth of the soule faith and not by the very mouth of the bodie And they know with one consent the ancient Fathers teach that the wicked and vnbeleeuing whiles they remain such cannot eate the bodie and bloode of Christ which they neither could nor would haue done if they had knowne that there was any such reall presence eyther by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation as nowe these men teach For eyther of these beeing graunted the other how absurd soeuer it be must follow thereupon And therefore is it because they know that the Consequent being absurd the Antecedent frō whence it floweth must needs be so also that these men are thus eager to defend this to be no absurditie that all that communicate though they be neuer so bad and faithlesse eate the bodie and drinke the bloode of Christ really for otherwise they know they cannot defend any longer their reall presence as they do For Isee no cause else why they should make so much a doe for persons so vnworthie to haue such care and paines taken for them But yet so wedded are these men vnto their groundes that they haue builded this their fancie vpon mentioned before Christes wordes proue not their purpose that vnlesse we can driue them frō thence notwithstanding all yet said against it it is to be feared that they wil think that they both may and ought to holde it still Wherefore whereas first they seeme to thinke that the wordes of Christ are plaine and pregnant to prooue their kind of reall presence and mouth-eating consequently of his bodie and bloode doubtlesse if with a single eie and without any preiudicate opinion we consider thereof we shall soone see that it is nothing but peeuishnesse wilfulnesse that makes them eyther so to say or thinke That the wordes of Christ are most certaine and true in the sense that he meant them when he vttered them we neuer denied nor will no nor yet we neuer gaue leaue vnto our selues so much as once to doubt thereof Wherefore if any of them perswade any man otherwise of vs they doe vs open and manifest wrong Neither can we thinke so vncharitablie of them but that we are perswaded that they so likewise thinke of them Heerein then is the difference and controuersie betwixt them and vs whether we or they hit of the right sense thereof Which beeing the question indeed as it is for the determining herof euery reasonable man must needes confesse that whose interpretation agrees best with the nature of the thing in hand with the analogie of faith and good manners with the rest of the Scriptures and sound antiquitie that is to be taken best to agree with Christes meaning and therefore is the fense to be followed and preferred before all others Nowe we interprete the wordes of Christ as spoken by a Metonymie that is by a figure of speech whereby one thing beares the name of the other as heere bread and wine we say doe of the bodie broken and blood shed of Christ because the one both signifies and representes the other vnto vs and also assures vs rightlie receiuing the one that we are and shal be partakers also of the other These men crie and vrge that the wordes are plaine and without any such figure and yet howsoeuer they therefore agree that they import a reall presence to the outward clementes and to the mouth of euerie receiuer as we haue heard yet the one sorte would haue them expounded to that end to inferre Consubstantiation and the other a Transubstantiation Iudge therefore now I beseech you by the foresaid rules whether theirs or ours be likest to be Christes meaning The matter in hande when those wordes were first vttered by him was a Sacrament and they know as wel as we that in all other Sacramentes when eyther they were instituted by God or afterwards spoken of by him though the very like Phrases for all the world were vsed of them that are here by Christ of these that yet vnto this day neuer any of themselues or others expounded them eyther as they doe these heere or otherwise then we doe these Circumcision is called the Couenant Gen. 17.10 the Lamb the Passeouer Exod. 12.21 the rocke that the people of Israel dranke the water of in the wildernesse Christ 1. Cor 10.4 the blood of their sacrifices the blood of the Couenant Exod. 24.8 the Arke the King of glorie and Iehouah Psal 24.8.10 and Baptisme is called the lauer or washing of our new birth Tit. 3.5 And yet who euer expounded these phrases eyther by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation thereby really to make alwaies present to euery of these outward elements the spirituall matter thereby signified and resembled yea who euer vnderstoode these otherwise then to be as the wordes import onely by signification representation and for the assurance of the right vsers of them of the presence to them of the thinges therby signified and represented spiritually Why therfore should Christ either speake otherwise in the instituting of this then had beene vsed in all other Sacraments or speaking but euen so what reasō is there why his speach should otherwise
was ratified and so standeth by the shedding of that bloode to all beleeuers in him But indeed though they would seeme to be men that make wonderfull great conscience of the letter and wordes as though it were sacriledge to goe one iot from the sound thereof yet any man that lookes but with halfe an eye vpon either of their interpretations which they stand vpon to grounde their kinde of reall presence by shall soone perceiue that they are nothing the men they make shewe for For is it all one eyther to say together with this is my bodie and bloode or vnder the accidentes heereof is my bodie and blood and to say This is my bodie and bloode And yet thus when al is done Christes wordes must sounde or else neither will there or can there be either the Lutherans Consubstantiation or the popish Transubstantiation brought in therby to vphold their fond reall presence by Sure I am neyther any Dictionarie or Grammer in the worlde will allow them thus to expounde this worde Is. Were it not better for them with vs to retaine the word and also with vs so to expound it or vnderstand it as not onelie vsually alwaies it is in all other Sacramentall phrases but also commonly alwaies when it is placed betweene two thinges of so diuers natures as bread and wine and bodie and bloode be The rather yet to prouoke them so to doe let them but consider whether their newe found sense therof or this of ours vnderstanding it as placed for it signifieth representeth and sealeth vnto you my bodie broken and blood shed to be yours to eternall life stand better but with these wordes of Christ Doe this in remembrance of me Luke 22.19 1. Cor. 11.24 especially so taken as it is cleare Paule tooke them when thereof he inferreth 1. Cor. 11.26 as oft as ye shall eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come For according to our doctrine by these words thus vnderstood Christ would teach vs that this Sacrament was instituted by him of purpose to keepe in our memories his death and passion and by the vse whereof wee might vntill his comming againe to iudgment professe and nourish our faith in his body then broken and blood shed for vs. Here is nothing sounding in the meane time towardes any corporall presence of his to the outward elements or mouthes of the receiuers whosoeuer but these words In remembrance of me and Till he come againe sounde plainly to the cotrarie For what need a thing to be done in remembrance of one bodily present or how can a thing with any good sence be said to be done but till one come that yet he being verily present in body is done We read Act. 1.11 that shortly after the institution of this Sacrament he visibly ascended into heauen the Apostles seing him so to doe with their eyes and there we read also that the Angels told them that even so likewise he shoulde come againe when he comes from thence reading also as we doe and haue alreadie noted once or twise that the heauens must containe him vntill the restitution of all things Act. 3.21 and that his comming from thence is plainely called his second cōming Heb. 9.28 how can we but thinke that Christ as well meant to forwarne vs of these fellowes that by their Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation say vnto vs lo heere is Christ with this piece of bread or vnder the accidents therof loe take him into thy verie mouth as of those that point vnto vs wrong Christes heere or there when he said if any should say vnto you speaking of such as should so doe after he had left the world was gone vnto his Father Loe heere is Christ or there is Christ beleeue him not And how is it possible that we should beleeue these places of Scripture to be true and hold stil them notwithstanding that Christ is really and in his full bodie present in euery communicants mouth May we thinke with Peter that the heauens doe and shall containe him still and that yet vpon this occasion he is alwaies thus heere And that beeing so how can it be that his comming from thence at the last daie shall be but his second comming or that it is true when he comes from thence he shall come visibly no such thing hauing euer beene seene heere I knowe they will say all these places are to be vnderstood of his visible body and that they speake of his inuisible bodie Yea but then we replie where euer learned they either in Scripture or in any ancient Father that euer he had any such inuisible bodie or howe can they euer make it sinke into any mans head that hath rightlie learned in the Scriptures to know Christes manhood that at one and selfe same time he shoulde haue a visible bodie and an inuisible yea one in the heauens to come inuisiblie againe when he pleaseth and yet the same both there and this heere also multiplied into so many inuisible bodies as there be receiuers mouthes If this be not with the olde rotten doting and long agoe condemned Marcion to make a meere phantasme of the bodie of Christ let any man iudge But once for all by this sworde of the Spirit to pierce this monstrous conceipt of theirs to the verie heart and so to leaue it for dead seeing they stande so much vpon the letter and wordes of the text I would haue them once againe to marke and remember that Saint Paule that saith therein That which he receiued of the Lord he deliuered hath vpon his credite told vs that the Lord speaking of the bread called it not simplie and nakedly his bodie but his bodie broken and they all agree in one that he called the other his blood shed If therefore they will sticke to the wordes of the text and yet haue a reall presence as they teach of his verie bodie and blood by vertue of the wordes thereof they see most plainely then it must be of his bodie broken and of his blood shed Vnlesse therefore nowe they can finde vs an inuisible bodie broken and blood inuisible shed of his for the mouth of euerie receiuer they neither say or doe any thing to the purpose according to the text But I hope they are not so farre gone but they know that it is now a thousand and fiue hundred yeares agoe and more since he had eyther his bodie broken or blood shed and that when they were so he died so that he dies no more as we reade Rom. 6.9 And therefore euen heereby the most simple may see that though they could shew that his bodie aliue or glorified could be inuisible infinite and so multipliable as their doctrine importes which yet they can neuer doe that yet all this were nothing to the reall presence of the bodie and blood of Christ in respect of that estate of his when the one was broken and the other shed for the
matter most cleare that that might be trusted to to worke and to procure these effectes he is so cooled that he concludes the matter but thus that he allowes confidence to be put in good works indeed so that pride therein be auoyded but yet for that that pride is so hardly auoided in this case as it is we are alwaies so vncertaine as we must needes bee whether we haue attained to that measure and manner of righteousnesse that to this purpose is necessary he thinketh it most safe when we haue done all the good works we haue or can that yet we put all our trust and confidence in the onely mercy and goodnesse of God Which what is it else but whē he hath done his worst against the imputation of Christs righteousnesse to make the beleeuer in him righteous by for the establishing of this their own inherent righteousnes in the romphe therof euen then to cast vs the bucklets and for shame to take his heeles and to run away from his cause and to leaue vs both the field the victory But alwaies great is the trueth and it will preuaile Wherfore howsoeuer they thinke of themselues we may plainely inough see that their case is pitifull and lamentable in their striuing thus to darkē to obscure the glorie of Christ for the maintenance and setting vp of themselues and their owne deuises in his romphe and yet when all comes to all to be enforced thus in effect to confesse that all the while they haue but kicked against the prickts and for that whervnto they dare not trust in conclusion God of his mercy make them to see their grosse errours heerein and in the meane time let vs runne by the light of the gospell this way be Christ by acknowledging him both in person and office to be such an one as I haue thereby proued and manifested him to bee which when we haue done then we haue made a good beginning to obey Christes commaundement heere but yet the chefe is behinde for he further addeth and drinke By this drinking Christe must be caten and drunken and there fore there must be had a true cōmunion with him he doubtlesse vnderstoode drinking of himselfe thereby implying eating of himselfe also for as he said in the former chapter Except yee drinke his blood so withall he saith except ye eate the flesh of the sonne of man yee haue no life in you and whosoeuer eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I wil raise him vp at the last day vers 53. 54. By which figuratiue metaphorical kinde of speach he would teach vs that as it is not inough for him that is hungry and thirsty to come where meate and drinke is to see and behold them yea perfectly to knowe them and be able to say what euery thing is and to what vse it serueth but if he would haue his hunger and thirst satisfied he must thereof both eate and drinke euen so is it in this case For it is not inough to come vnto Christ though we come from point to point as I haue shewed vnlesse that done we goe further yea so farre as that we as surely and verily take him vnto vs and into vs and so make him as certainely our own as meate drinke receiued in and wel digested may be said to be our owne Wherby it most clearely appeareth that as no benefite can arise to the maintenance of this present life by meat and drinke vnlesse they be eaten vpon drunken and as neyther the sap and iuice that is in the meate nor the power nor force of the drinke can be made ours to nourish strengthen our bodies vnlesse we eate drinke the meat and drinke themselues wherein they are lodged contained euen so is it betwixt Christ vs. And therefore Though he be the bread of life his flesh meat indeed his blood drink indeed as we are plainly taught by him they are in the former chap. ver 53 55. yet we can be neuer the nearer therby to the maintenāce of our spiritual life before God vnles by an eating drinking of him fit for that purpose we feed vpon him cat drink himself so cōsequētly by making him wholly God man our very own and so growing into vnion communion with him we attaine vnto all those good things that are prepared for vs in him And to put vs out of al doubt hereof Saint Iohn in his first Epistle Cap. 1.3 sheweth vs that the whole scope of his ministrie and of his fellow Apostles was that there by this communion and fellowship with Christ might be attained saying That which wee haue seene and heard declare wee vnto you that ye may also haue fellowship with vs and that our fellowship may be with the father and with his sonne Iesus Christ Againe most plaine it is to this purpose that he writeth Cap. 5. of that Epistle vers 11.12 where he saith That God hath giuen vs eternall life he that hath the sonne hath life and he that hath not the sonne hath not life For heerby most plainely first we are taught that the chiefe vse that we are to make of the ministrie is thereby to attaine to haue communion with Christ and then as clearely he shewes vs the better to prouoke vs to striue to make that vse thereof indeede that God in his mercy hauing prouided eternall life for vs which we by the fall of Adam and our owne sinnes had lost in his sonne Christ Iesus that yet he would haue the case so stande with vs in respect thereof that we can neuer haue that vnlesse we haue the sonne himselfe in whom it is treasured coffered vp for vs. Wherby questionlesse the Lorde in his wisedome euen of loue towardes vs hath so ordered the matter for our verie best For when Adam and Eue had life in their owne handes in paradice we haue found by experience they very quickly lost it God therfore hauing so costlie and dearely compassed it againe for vs by the death and passion of his owne welbe loued sonne he sawe it in his wisedome neither good nor safe for vs liuing in this dangerous world to trust it any more in our owne handes and therefore he that is the author and purchaser thereof for vs as he hath the best right therunto by his appointment hath it still lodged for vs in himselfe and that so surely and inseparably that none euer shal or can be partaker thereof but by the communication of his verie selfe first and so once beeing sure of him then also he may withall be assured of the other For these two now by Gods ordinance goe alwaies so togither that where Christ is had there the partie in him is sure of euerlasting life and where he is not had there can be no assurance thereof The blessed sacrament of the bodie and blood of Christ was Instituted by him euen
of purpose not onely to keepe still fresh in our remembrance his precious death with all the fruites thereof both generally and particularly but also without all doubt to offer to deliuer and to feale the doliuery to as many as rightly as they should receiue the same a most certaine vnion and communion with whole and full Christ himselfe And to teach vs plainly so much Paule saith 1. Cor. 10.16 The cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the breade which we breake is it not the communion of the bodie of Christ As certainely therefore as by bodily eating and drinking in that sacrament or elsewhere the eater and drinker of bread and wine makes himselfe partaker of all the force and goodnesse therein by making themselues first his owne to the chearing and strengthening of this life in the bodie so by such eating and drinking of the bodie broken and blood shed for him of Christ which are the thinges in this sacrament signified and offered vnto him as is fit to make such foode his owne by as verily the worthy and right receiuer in soule feedeth vpon and is nourished to eternall life with the broken bodie and bloodshed of Christ Iesus And to assure al such of this by Christ the bread is faid to be his body broken and the wine his blood shed for the remission of their fins and both so termed and called by his ordinance broken and powred forth are particularly to be giuen to euery such communicant and they are likewise to receiue them and therefore doubtlesse thereby taught not only by that which they see and he are in the administration herof with thankfull and penitent hearts to remember his death and sonowe therein his bodie was broken and his blood shed and seuered from his body and that therefore these so handled are the heauenly and spirituall foode prepared for the maintenance of their spirituall life before God but also by that which further is deliuered and they receiue that they are to assure themselues euerie one in particular that Christ died for them and therefore shall nourish and feede them to eternall life by vniting himselfe most certainely vnto them to that ende and purpose Further yet to teach vs that this moste certaine and reall vnion with Christe is for the whole Church and for the saluation thereof most necessary those other metaphors also serue whereby be is compated to the heade and husband of the Church as of his bodie and wife Ephes 1.12 Cap. 5.32 or to the vine stocke whereinto his heauenly father engrasteth all those branches that euer shall being forth much fruite that he may be glorified Io. 15.5.6.7.8 For hereby we are taught that as it is with these heade husband and stocke in respect of the bodie wife and branches so is it betwixt Christ and all those that shall be saued As therefore vnlesse the head really growe and be vnited to the bodie yea though there can but a haire goe betwixt the one and the other the bodie can haue no life from the head and as mariage beeing consummate it maketh them that were strangers before one bodie one flesh yea one selfe fame Ephes 5.28.29 and that otherwise vnperfected it hath no such effect and lastly as it is not inough for the braunches to touch the vine stocke yea nothing to haue life from thence vnlesse they so growe therin that it and they be as it were one euen so is it in this case betwixt Christ and all those that would be saued by him And therefore to expresse as much Paule saith That such as are his they are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephe. 5.30 yea 1. Cor. 1.13 he maketh the Church and Christ but as one perfect man whereof Christ is the heade and the Church his bodie in so much as Ephes 1.23 he calleth the Church his fulnesse to shew that such loue there is betwixt Christ and his Church and that there is also such a perfect vnion betwixt them that though he be he that filleth all thinges and is the perfection thereof that he accounteth himselfe as a heade without a bodie without the true vnion and connexion of the Church with him And therfore Iohn 17.23 he was an earnest suter vnto his father that he might be in his as he his father was in him that so they might be made perfect in one and heerein he knew he was so heard that he accounteth the affliction of any sound member of his Church as the persecution of his owne self and therefore when Saule persecuted such he said vnto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee Act. 6.4 And yet better to assure them thereof he also reckoneth his owne ioyes to be theirs as well as their sorrowes to be his that will open vnto him and be his and therefore to encourage such so to doe and bee he said vnto them Reue. 3.22 that to such he would giue to sit with him vpon his throne and that he woulde sup with them and that they likewise should sup with him The cuidence of this doctrine beeing most strong and apparant as you he are and the papistes themselues not seeming to doubt thereof at all but that theiudgements of God are vnsearchable and that they haue deserued for their wilfull seeking to darken the light of the gospel will they nill they shining amongst them to be made drunke and so quite to be caried away in the most just iudgement of God by a strong dilusion of the enchanted cup ful of formications profered vnto them vged vpon them by the garish whore of Babilon it is a wonder that withal they are not enforced to see to perceiue the most of the absurdities heresies they hold tou ching the article of iustificatiō saluation For how can it otherwise bee but that they that are thus vnited to Christ he to them must needs most certenly as it were sensi bly vnderstād it so to bee by the wonderful alteration that therupon thorowout both in body soule wil grow in thē by the inseparable graces of the spirit alwaies accōpanying his vnion with his And therfore in him there being also as alwaies there is full and certain remission of sins prepared for al them that be so nilie his he neuer going without his perfect righteousnes being as he is the very fountaine of al Gods fauours mercies towards man how is it possible that he should be a mans owne he know it also but that he may and must without any wauering or doubting thereof fully and firmly be assured that his sins are forgiuen him that his righteousnes is his that therfore he may haue a most speciall assurance and confidence of the mercy of God to his most perfect faluation For these graces and fauours of God are neuer seuered frō the person of Christ therfore wheras he is once really truely
therwith the Spirit of God so to worke in your heartes that the eies of your soules be opened aright to see and knowe Christ and your hearts framed accordingly to beleeue in him vndoubtedly euen then according to Christs commaundement heere in my text you come vnto him and drinke him yea you eate his flesh and drinke his bloode to eternall life Wherefore deare brethren when you come but to heare I say vnto euerie one of you with the wise man Ecclesiastes 4.17 Take heede to thy foote when thou entrest into the house of God that so thou maist follow his counsel in that which followeth that is to be more neare to heare thā to offer the sacrifice of fooles And according to the aduise of Ieremy by the strong plow of repentance faith breake vp the fallow ground of your hearts when you come to heare that we sow not the good seede of the worde amongst thornes Cap. 4.4 For as you may most plainly learne by the parable Mat. 13.4 c. though the Lord send neuer so good seedsmē amongst you they sow the good seed neuer so faithfully yet if your hearts be either like the high way or like thornie or stony ground you shal neuer bring forth any good haruest to the Lord. For onely the good honest heart furnished with patiēce shall doe that as there we are taught and therefore labour to bring such hearts But alas when all comes to all most true it is that Christ saith none can come vnto him but whom the father draweth Io. 6.44 Paul may plant and Apollo water and yet all to no purpose vnlesse God giue the increase 1. Cor. 3.3 And yet I say for all this despise not prophecying if you woulde take out the former lesson quench not the spirit 1. Thes 5.19.20 For by the outwarde ministrie of men the Lord inwardlie by his spirite worketh in you a knowledge and loue of Christ and so draweth you vnto him And that hath Christ himselfe taught immediatly saying Ioh. 6.45 It is written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God Euerie man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father commeth vnto me Whereupon very well Augustine in his 26. tract vpon Iohn noteth saying videte quomodo trahit pater docendo delectat non necessitatem imponendo that is behold how the father draweth by teaching he delighteth not by imposing necessitie or enforcing And to the same purpose vpon the foresaide wordes hee moste sweetely obserueth that it being founde true in these earthly delightes that euerie one is drawne or caried with his delight that much rather Christ by teaching beeing manifested vnto vs by his Father will draw vs vnto him Yet most certaine it is that onely God it is that first openeth and enlightneth our mindes to see Christ by his ministrie set before vs and who then creates in vs a newe a will to delight in him and to imbrace him which the same Father acknowledgeth also saying that we will well he worketh of himselfe without vs and when we so will that we doe he worketh togither with vs De gratia libero arbitrto Cap. 17. And yet though all this be most true Of Sacramentes in generall are not the sacramentes and the vse and meditation thereof needlesse and superfluous vnto vs to this purpose For as the worde written in the canouical Scriptures is as the written will of our heauenly Father which we publish vnto you when we read them and by preaching open them vnto you so the Sacramentes are as the great and auten tike seales of the Lord annexed thereunto for the more and better assuring vs of the certainetie of those heauenly legaces that therein are bequeathed vs. Indeed God for his part is so stedfast constant and true in all his sayings that though onelie by bare speech he should reueale his will vnto vs it were our dueties most stedfastly to beleeueit But he that made vs knoweth what is in vs and by experience we finde how necessarie so euer it be for vs to beleeue the word of God that yet though we haue it as in the goodnesse of God towardes vs we haue both written and thus sealed and confirmed by his Sacraments that all this is little inough to make vs beleeue it as we should Wherefore seeing it hath pleased God to stoupe so lowe vnto vs thus to apply himself to our capacity let vs in the name of God praise him therfore and most thankfully take vse of all the meanes that he hath left vs to get vnto his sonne by And therefore giue me leaue heere to enlarge my selfe a little vnto you that there be nothing wanting in mee to shew you or to helpe you forward by the helpe of these Sacramentes that I speake of through the working of Gods spirite in your heartes withall more and more to come vnto Christ and to be vnited vnto him to your euerlasting saluation And the rather because I know as the right vnderstanding of the nature thereof may by Gods blessing mightilie helpe you or ward therein so eyther the ignorance thereof or an erroneous conceite of them may verie much hinder you in the same Sacraments I call them according to the ancient vse and phrase of the Church which name I take was at the first borrowed from an ancient fashion of making a solemne vow and couenant betwixt the Emperour and his souldiers whereby he was bound to them to goe in and out before them as an Emperour they bound themselves vnto him againe to be faithfull and obedient souldiers And therefore because in these sacred rites it was obserued that likewise there passeth a solemne couenant betwixt God and the worthie receiuers thereof it was thought that not vnfitly they might be called Sacraments And in verie deede whether we consider Baptisme or that other of the bodie and blood of Christ we shall easily finde that thereby this is done For in Baptisme the minister in the name of GOD offereth by baptising in water in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holie Ghost vnto the partie baptized not onelie a figure representation of the washing away of his sinnes and of his regeneration in the bloode of Christ but also a visible and sensible seale thereof whereby God bindeth himselfe to doe all this for the partie if the let and stoppe thereof be not in himselfe and he likewise by receiuing this Sacrament maketh open profession that he will liue and beleeue accordingly And in the other when breade and wine called as they be are deliuered vnto the communicant in like maner then God offereth to feede that partie to eternall life with the bodie broken and blood shed of his son and he by taking of them makes open confession that he so beleeueth and therefore will so shew it in his life therafter and of this mutuall couenant the sacrament deliuered and receiued is a most certaine pledge and seale betwixt them
Testament wherein by beeing dipped in or sprinkled vpon with water in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost we are assured that God the Father can and will in the blood and by the blood of his Sonne by the mighty working of the holy Ghost wash away our sins and so receiue vs and incorporate vs into his Church that we shal be his new borne children and inabled to be holy because he is holy We administer it to infants because it succeedeth Circumcision which was by Gods ordinance appointed to be ministred to the infants of the Iewes when they were but eight daies old Ge. 17.12 because Christ said Suffer little children to come vnto me for of such is the kingdom of heauen Mat. 19.13 because we read that the Apostles baptised whole households as Act. 16.33 amongest which sometimes it is most likelie there were some infantes and lastly because we finde that God promised not onelie to be the God of Abraham but also of his feede after him Gen. 17.7 and that Saint Paule most plainely teacheth that if one of the parents be beleeuing then is the seede holy 1. Cor. 7.14 And therefore it beeing administred to such and in water and in that manner that it is by Christs ordinance the nature of water beeing as we knowe it to bee we may and ought to learne all these lessons that we are all borne and conceiued in sinne and therewith so defiled that we stand need of washing that this washing and cleanseing is to be had at God the Fathers hands through Iesus Christ by the working of the holie Ghost and no where else that God both can and will thus wash and cleanse vs and that therefore this Trinitie in vnitie is onely to be beleeued in and trusted vnto for the matter of our saluation and to be honoured in all thankfulnesse for the same by our ceasing from sinne and doing of that which is good Whereupon we see that they that would lead vs after we haue once beene thus baptised to put our faith and confidence for any part of our forgiuenes of sinnes or saluation eyther in any other person or thing as the cōmon fashion is amongst papistes doubtlesse they would haue vs to reuolt from that faith wherein we were baptised and whereunto therby we haue most solemnly bound our selues Heereby also we may perceiue that though Baptisme it selfe be but once to be ministred for the reason before shewed yet as oft as euer eyther we finde our sinnes readie to shake our faith or otherwise to trouble vs by meditation thereof we are thus to haue our recourse againe vnto it to the strengthening both of our faith and to the weakning of the power of sinne howsoeuer the papistes would perswade vs that it serueth onely to assure vs of remission of sinnes before because we may be sure that God is alwaies readie if we can beleeue in him to performe vnto vs whatsoeuer he hath offered vnto vs therein Which doubtlesse is the remission of all our sinnes before or after we beleeuing and repenting thereof Or else if onely thereby were offered forgiuenesse of sinnes before it then surely the Church would haue deferred it to the last or later then eyther it hath or yet doth And as for the other Sacrament Of the other Sacrament if we doe with any diligence but consider that which we finde set downe thereof Mat. 26.26 c. Mar. 14.22 c. Luk. 22.19 c. 1. Cor. 11.23 c. we shall there finde whatsoeuer appertaineth eyther generally to a Sacrament or particularly vnto it most plainely and effectually expressed For there it is euident that Christ instituted it and commanded his ministers to administer it vntill his comming againe that he ordained very bread and wine to be the outward visible elements and his bodie broken for his and his blood shed for the remission of their sinnes to be the things by the other figured signified and represented yea thereby both offered and truely deliuered and communicated to the right and worthy receiuer And therefore to assure thē of as much he called the bread broken distributed his body broken the wine powred forth giuen thē in the cup his blood of the new Testament shed for many to the remission of their sins We therefore by warrant from hence do define this To be a Sacrament of the new Testament instituted by Christ and to administred by his ordinance and to be receiued according to the same of his faithfull people consisting not onely of bread broken wine powred out into the cup to be distributed receiued of al worthy commers thereunto in remembrance of his death and passion and as vndoubted tokens by his institution though not of their own nature both that his body was broken and his blood shed for all his in general and also particularly for the full redemption and saluation of euery right receiuer hereof but also of the very broken body and bloodshed of Christ for our saluation therewith all as certainely offred to be fed on to eternall life and fed on indeed by euery worthy communicant though by spirituall meanes as the other are offered vnto them taken and fed on by the instruments of the bodie Whereupon most earnestly we exhort euery one that would worthily come vnto this table and so be partakers indeed to their comfort of this Sacrament with Saint Paule in any case to trie and examine themselues first and to iudge themselues least for want of so doing they be heere iudged of the Lord by eating of this breade and drinking of this cup vnworthily to haue made themselues guiltie of his bodie and bloode and so to eate and drinke their own damnation For though we holde breade and wine heerein still to retaine their former substance and essence because euen by the expresse wordes of the institution in the places before quoated so much is euident and the common nature of a Sacrament requireth the continuance of the outwarde element in his former nature that so it may carrie the better and apterresemblance of the thing whose name it beareth yet we know and most willingly confesse with all antiquitie that thereof heere by vertue of Christes institution which doth and shal remaine in force stil to the worlds end alwaies to effect the same in bread and wine according to his ordinance set aside and vsed to this purpose there is a verie great change and alteration But that is but in name vse and estimation For whereas before they were but called bread and wine and serued but to the common vse of the nourishing and cheering of the bodie and therefore so onely were to be esteemed heerein they beare the names of the verie bodie and bloode of Christ and they serue as the Lordes good meanes to lead and strengthen our faith to feede therupon indeed to our saluation The vse thereof and therefore we esteeme of them herein not as they are
of their owne nature but as they are by his institution sacred signes simbols representations similitudes pledges and seales of those thinges whose names they beare And therefore we call vpon you most earnestly whensoeuer you receiue in the feare of God reuerently so to take them and so by marking what is said of them and done with them to take occasion first to call effectually to your remembrance how Christs body was broken with sorrowes and tormentes and his pretious blood shed and seuered in his passion from his body to satisfie the iustice of God his heauenly father for mans sinnes yea euen for euery one of your sinnes and therefore withall heartily to sorrowe for your sinnes that put him to al these paines and yet vnsainedlie also with thankefull heartes to reioyce that he woulde take such paines for them that were so vnworthy thereof Which you are notably occasioned to doe when in the administration of this Sacrament you first see the bread broken and the wine powred forth and both particularly offered vnto euerie one of you seuered and apart the one after the other yet bearing the names of his bodie broken and bloode shed for you Secondly knowing the natures of bread and wine as you doe and to what vse they setue touching this life they bearing heere the names of the bodie broken and blood shed of Christ as they doe we assure you that thereby most iustlie we are occasioned to beleue that in the bodie broken and blood shed of Christ both the breade and drinke that is all the foode that is necessary for the maintenance of our spirituall life for euer before God lieth and that therfore there it is only to be sought And in that these further thus called and vsed are giuen vnto euery one of you that come vnto the Lordes boarde and you take them thereby the Lord by vs his ministers particularly offers his bodie broken and his blood shedde vnto cuery one of you to feede and nourish you to euerlasting life and you by taking of them in outward shew answere both him and vs that you doe most firmly and stedfastly euery one of you particularly beleue that he will doe so indeede Wherefore in any case when you streach forth your hands and open your mouthes to take breade and wine thus called at our hands take Christes so calling of them to be a most follemne promise to his to assure you that if indeede then you beleeue that his body was once broken for you and his blood shedde for the remission of your sins as the story of his passion and this Sacrament which is a visible commemoration therof shewe that then vndoubtedly without all question you doe not nor cannot more ceratinly by those instrumentes of your bodies take the breade and wine feede thereof then by this faith of yours the very mouth of your soule in this case you feede vpon his broken bodie and bloode shedde But then I say once againe faile not but when your hands and mouthes are occupied about the taking feeding vpon the outward elements let this faith of yours which is in steede of both to your soule be feruently occupied in beleeuing that by the broken body bloodshed of Christ Iesus your saluation was is fully purchased These three vses thus made taken in the receite of this Sacrament in that you finde by experience knowe it to be most certaine that by the force ordinary worke of nature bread and wine receiued in disgested are conuerted to fit foode for our nature so there growes an vnion betwixt our nature and them so this Sacrament thus receiued is and ought to be vnto vs as a sealed couenant of Christ Iesus by the mightie working of his Spirite to assure vs that he will finde the means most certainlye to vnite himselfe vnto vs to nourish and to feed vs so with himselfe that in him we shall growe to be perfect men in his house And lastly as this Sacrament serues first to these ends so notably to strengthen our faith in Iesus Christ crucified so serues it also as a most notable meane outwardly both before God and men to make confession of the same our faith by to distinguish vs as by our recognisance from others that are not of that fayth to prouoke vs continually to offer vnto God the sacrifice of thankesgiuing for this most sweete sacrifice of his sonne heerein brought fresh still to our remembrance and so beleeued in and vpon and to be a bond of loue and vnitie amongest all the receiuers thereof For as Paule saith We that are many are one bread and one bodie because we are all partakers of one bread 1. Cor. 10.17 So that by the receite heereof as first our vnion and communion with Christ is sealed vnto vs so also is it the seale and bond of the communion that the Saintes of God haue amongst themselues Wherefore as it straitely bindeth vs hauing receiued it vnlesse we would haue it appeare that we receiued it vnworthily afterwardes to liue as they that liue in and by Christ so it bindeth vs also all that receiue as members knit together in one bodie vnder one head to liue together in perfect peace and vnity Worthilie therefore all these thinges considered may we say of it as Augustine did in his time O Sacramentum pietatis ô signum vnitatis ô vinculum charitatis that is O Sacrament of pietie O signe of vnitie O bond of charitie tract 26. vpon Iohn Who should come vnto it how And if these thinges were well remembred as they ought neyther should ministers as they doe in most places without any due preparation of their people before admit them tag and rag one and other to this sacred table neyther would the people so rudely ignorantly and prophanely presse thereunto for a fashion onely as to too commonly they doe For if at any time that commaundement of Christ binde vs ministers as doubtlesse it doth or else Christ woulde neuer haue giuen it vs Giue ye not that which is holie vnto dogges neyther cast ye your pearles before swine Math. 7.6 it most directly bindeth vs heere to doe what lyeth in vs to know that they be neyther dogges nor swine to whome we offer this blessed sacrament before we so doe For heerein we see Christ Iesus that is the true bread of life whose flesh is meate indeede and whose bloode is drinke indeede as he himselfe hath assured vs Iohn 6.35.51.55 is offered to the right commers thereunto therefore here that saying of Christ is most true it is not good to take the childrens breade and to cast it to whelpes Math 15.16 In the ould Testament the Lord hath set downe an expresse Lawe that none that were vncircumcised should be admitted to the eating of the Pasouer Exod. 12.48 Yea Numb 9.6 c. we reade that God by his expresse Oracle shewed Moses that they that were but ceremonially vncleane were
And we finde by lamentable experience in Iudas that he bringing vnto this table though neuer so much shew of pietie knowledge honestie and goodnes yet for that he came as an hollow hearted hypocrite in a purpose to goe on with the treason that for wages he had vndertaken the Deuill immediately vpon his beeing there entred into him and so he neuer ceased vntill he had accomplished his wicked purpose and after by desperate murdering of himselfe had shewed himselfe to be the childe of perdition as we may read most plainely in the storie of the Gospell Iohn 13.27 c. Howe therefore with anie reason may we thinke that we can come vnto the Lordes table there by receiuing of this Sacrament to growe in vnion and communion with Christ and yet be in such palpable ignorance and darkenesse and in such loue with errour and iniquitie as very many that come thither both by their liues before after shew themselues to be If the sonne and heire of our Prince at any time though but in his swathing cloathes should be offered vnto vs to holde in our armes whatsoeuer we had in our handes we woulde readilie let fall to doe that seruice and so to be honoured how much more to put on the Lord Iesus the onely begotten Sonne of God the King of all kinges yea to receiue him into our verie selues to be one with vs should we hastily cast away and lay aside the world the flesh and the deuill and all the wicked lustes and fruites of these If Dauid therefore Psal 24.9 in spirite foreseeing that the Arke which was but a signe and figure of Gods presence amongst the Iewes shoulde one day be brought in by the doores of the Temple to be placed therein before the Temple beganne to be built did crie as he did Lift vp your heades ye gates and lift vp your selues ye euerlasting doers and the king of glorie shall come in let me vpon iuster and greater occasion cry and call vpon euerie one that woulde that Christ shoulde enter into them receiuing this Sacrament lift vp your heartes and be lift vp your selues from all the fruites of the fleshe that this King of glorie may enter in indeede Paule for the sectes and factions and namely for their eating and drinking in the Idoll Temples of meate sacrificed vnto them howsoeuer otherwise they seemed to detest idolatrie and for their lacke of loue that they shewed towardes the poore in their loue-feastes in not tarrying for them gaue the Corinthians to vnderstand that they did so vnworthily eate of this bread and drinke of this cup that they made themselues guiltie of the bodie and blood of Christ are and dranke their owne damnation and that many slept and were weake amongst them as by conference of the tenth and eleuenth chapters together of the first Epistle written vnto them it appeareth How can we then but tremble at the consideration of Gods iudgementes due vnto vs for our vnworthie partaking hereof there beeing such contentions and varieties of opinions amongst some of vs as there bee and besides such a number of other farre grosser sinnes amongst vs then these of the Corinthians were Let vs therefore take Paules remedie that is iudge our selues for this and doe no more so that so we may escape the iudgement of the Lorde 1. Cor. 11.31.32 Yet I would not haue you take me so It is oft to be receiued as though my drift or meaning herein were eyther quite to discourage you from comming or at least to driue you not to come but verie seldome for feare of vnworthy comming For I am not ignorant that Paules saying As often as ye shall eate this breade and drinke this cup ye shewe the Lordes death vntill he come 1. Cor. 11.26 sheweth that it standes very well with the will and pleasure of God that men should often be partakers thereof And therefore it is well knowne it was the fashion of the Primitiue Church vsually euerie Sabbaoth day to communicate And there are great reasons which he that would be accounted a Christian indeede and so to haue faith and knowledge fit for this businesse should not dare to refuse to receiue when he may For to be inuited vnto this table â—o be bid to the mariage of the Kings Sonne the refusall to come whereunto vpon what minde or pretence soeuer we finde so dangerous Math. 22. that both destruction heere and perpetuall exclusion on shutting from the mariage feast is threatned them Vers 7. c. And euerie one may see it is to refuse a most notable meanes to strengthen our faith wherof the strongest in faith stand neede or at least it is plainely to bewray our selues to be such as for want of charitie or for some other grieuous sinne that we know by our selues we think not our selues fit to come So to see our sinnes and to iudge our selues for the same is not altogether to be condemned But yet dearely beloued you must vnderstand that if withall we be heartilie sorie for these our sinnes and purpose vnfainedly amendment and are willing according to the nature and qualitie of our sinnes to giue vnfained testimonie thereof eyther particularly and priuately if that be enough or more publikly if the case so require that is no sufficient reason to keepe vs from this table For the more we see our wants and imperfections yea our faultes and sinnes if withall we rightly repent therof hauing knowledge faith in Christ Iesus right sound though weake and imperfect yet it is verie fit and necessarie that we come to this table so to grow on in all these For it is prepared for hungrie and thirstie soules after Christ and not for proud Pharisies that are puft vp with a conceit of their owne righteousnesse and worthinesse The impenitent and vnbeleeners eate not nor drinke the bodie and blood of Christ at al Indeede they that are destitute of all sound knowledge and faith and shew it by their continuing and going on in errour and impietie and hypocrites that haue none of the things they should haue but in shew are simplie vnworthie to be admitted and they whensoeuer they come make themselues guiltie of the bodie and blood of Christ for refusing it or not hauing wherewith or whereby totake it and so eate the bread drinke of the cup to their damnation And my speach tendes therefore eyther to prouoke such to be repentant and to become new creatures in Christ Iesus or else vntill indeed and trueth by examining of themselues they finde themselues to be in the faith so therby in Christ Iesus lamenting their miserable state and condition there whiles to abstaine For as the couenant belongs not to such whiles they are such so no more doth the feale of the couenant For them therefore by comming to snatch at the seale hauing nothing to doe with the couenant they as much as in them lies prophane the couenant and the author
thereof As therefore we see him worthily condemned of disloyally to the Prince her selfe that offers a manifest abusage to her coyne to her Seale Scepter crowne seate royall robes of estate or picture so we may be sure much more is he to be accounted guiltie of the bodie and blood of Christ and so worthie of damnation that not discerning aright that bread and wine are the Sacraments of the body blood of Christ with prophane handes mouth and heart receiues the same The foolish sonnes of Ely and the armie of the Israelites abused but the Arke which was a testimonie and signe of God amongst his people by fetching it into the campe when they fought against the Philistines and we reade the wrath of the Lord broâ—â—â— at both against them and the whole armie to their shamefull ouerthrow and destruction 1. Sam. 4.4 c. And so likewise when the Philistines prophaned it and abused it by setting it after they had taken it in the house of Dagon euen therefore 1. Sam. 5.2 c. not onely in the wrath of the Lord their idoll Dagon fell downe and brake his necke and the inhabitantes of Ashdod and of al the coastes thereof were miserably thereupon smitten with Emerods but also they coulde haue no rest or ease vntill they restored it home againe to the people to whom it did appertaine Yea when it was come home againe what else was the cause why the Lord with sudden death smote fiftie thousand men of Bethshemesh as we reade he did 1. Sam. 6.19 but that they to whom it did not appertaine to doe so looked into it And why did God manifest vnto Dauid his dislike of that fact of his for the manner thereof by striking of Vzza with sudden death for laying his hande to the Arke to stay it because the oxen did shake it though otherwise Dauid and Vzza had neuer so good meanings the one in bringing of it home and the other in so staying it but because it was carted home whereas the Leuites should haue brought it and he touched it that should not 2. Sam. 6.7 Wherefore once againe I say not to driue you from the Lordes table but of a desire that when you come you may come to your comfort examine your selues before you come as Paule hath bidden you 1. Cor. 13. whether you be in the faith or no and whether Christ be in you or no. For vntill you be in him you are as dead men before God For he is The way the trueth and the life Iohn 14.6 so that whosoeuer liueth indeede before God with Paule he may must say I liue yet not I any more but Christ liueth in me Gal. 2.20 and our life is hid with Christ in God and therefore when Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Collof 3.2.4 Whereupon it followeth as to eat and drinke for the sustenance and maintenance of this bodie of ours be actions of one aliue that hath alreadie bodie soule conioyned and vnited so none indeed can eate the flesh of the sonne of man drinke his blood but he that already liueth by faith in him as Paule speaketh Gal. 2.20 so alreadie hath Christ dwelling in him And therefore plainly toteach vs thus much saith Christ Except ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloode ye haue no life in you and then thereupon immediately addeth whosoeuer eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloode hath eternall life and a little after hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me I in him Iohn 6. Whereupon most plainly Saint Augustine in his 26. tract vpon Iohn inferreth thus Hoc est ergo manducare illam escam illum biberepotum c. that is This therfore is to eate that meate to drink that drink to abide in Christ and to haue Christ abide in thee And by this saith he he that abideth not in Christ in whom Christ abideth not without all doubt neither doth he spiritually eate his flesh nor drink his blood though carnally and visibly Premat dentibus SacramentuÌ„ corporis sanguinis Christi He presse with his teeth the Sacrament of the bodie and blood of Christ but rather he eateth and drinketh the Sacrament of so great a thing to his iudgement because beeing vncleane he presumed to come to the Sacramentes of Christ And therefore also most learnedly sundrie times there in that tract he shewes that Aliud est Saeramentum aliud virtus Sacramenti One thing is the Sacrament and an other thing is the vertue therof that it is he that Christ saith shal not die but liue that eateth of his flesh that pertaines to the vertue of the Sacrament and not to the visible Sacrament which eates within and not without which eates in heart not he whtch presseth with teeth For he is most resolute there also that Resipsa cuius est Sacramentum est omni homini ad vitam nulli ad exitium qui eius particeps fuerit c. that is That the thing of the Sacrament is to euery man that is partaker therof to life to none to destruction whereas immediately before he had yet written that the Sacrament therof De meÌ„sa dominica quibusdaÌ„ sumitur ad vitam quibusdam ad exitium that is That the Sacrament thereof might of some from the table of the Lord be receiued to life and of some to destruction And most certaine is all this howsoeuer some would darken all this cleare light and wipe away all this cleare euidence by saying that none else but the faithfull indeede can worthily eate the flesh of Christ and drinke his bloode which are the thinges of this Sacrament but yet vnworthily they may For though we read 1. Cor. 11.27 of an vnworthy eating of the bread and drinking of the cup that maketh them guiltie of the bodie and bloode of the Lord as we haue heard yet we neuer reade nor shall in all the Scriptures of an vnworthy eating of his bodie and drinking of his bloode For if there had beene any such Christ neyther could nor would haue said so simplie absolutely and confidently as he hath Iohn 6.54 and as we haue alreadie heard he did Whosoeuer eateth my flesh drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last day No no it is not the taking or feeding therupon that can hurtany but the not doing so that bringeth the daunger especially then when yet we would make a showe to doe both and yet indeede doe nothing lesse Christ is fed on both God and man But all this while I vrging the right commumcant in the vse of this Sacrament to seeke inwardly by faith to feede vpon the body broken and bloode shed of Christ Iesus himselfe when outwardly he feedeth vpon bread and wine I would not be so taken as though my meaning were to teach that faith heere were to reach no further
haue bene so nousled therein that the conceite they haue yet of the trueth thereof will hinder them if it be not the better confuted from taking any great good by al I haue said hitherto though otherwise heere I might well haue ended this matter and would yet I must craue leaue of you to take some further paines for the better backing of that which I haue said to lay before you that which I thinke sufficient for the iust confutation of this grosse moutheating of Christ Iesus by all communicantes whatsoeuer The things that Lutherans papistes hold in comon for their grosse reall presence confuted Heerein I shall haue to deale with two sortes of aduersaries the one sort where of are the Lutherans which I late spok of who to that end interprete Christes words spoken of the bread and wine so as that therevpon they inferre such a Consubstantiation that is such a beeing together of the verie bodie and blood of Christ with bread and wine in the vse of this Sacrament that whosoeuerreceiues the one with his mouth receiues the other and the other sort are our common aduersaries the Papistes who interprete the wordes of Christ so as that by the force thereof they teach the bread and wine to be transubstantiated that is to be turned into the bodie and bloode of Christ as some of them haue held or at least thereby as now most of them hold so to be conueyed away that there remaines nothing but the accidents thereof vnder which and together with which the bodie and bloode of Christ really are so certainly present that euery receiuer thereof takes into his mouth the verie bodie and bloode of Christ Otherwise these two are at deadly warre one with another and the former in most of the groundes and principles of Christian Religion hold with vs foundly against the other and yet in this and for the maintenance of this their carnall and grosse presence they are as vehement and bitter against vs for the denying oppugning thereof as the other Orderly therefore todeale with them both whereas there are some thinges in this case common to them both wherein they both holde alike against vs set vs consider of them of the groundes thereof first and afterwardes we will take a viewe of those thinges and of their groundes also wherein they differ both betwixt themselues and also from vs least otherwise we should be driuen tediously to repeate one thing often By their bookes that they haue written daily doe about this matter it is cuident that they both holde a reall presence of Christes bodie and blood together with the outward elements in the vse of this Sacrament and likewise that they both therfore teach that together with the same euery receiuer haue he a right faith or no receiues in by his mouth the verie real true bodie blood of Christ And both of them ground both these their opinions first of Christes words vttered of the bread and wine then of his almightinesse and lastly of the state now of his glorified bodie In and about the outward elements when they come to be taken of the mouth of the receiuer what they be and how long this their reall presence of bodie and blood with them continues they could neuer yet agree For the maintainers of Consubstantiation plainely with vs notwithstanding Christes wordes and all their other grounds for their manner of his reall presence holde and teach that they remaine substantially bread and wine still and so are taken and eaten and the other will haue after those wordes are once pronounced the substances of breade and wine to be gone quite though vnto this day they coulde neuer agree to tell what was become of them and the onely accidentes thereof to supplie the roome alwaies after of the outward part of this Sacrament The other hold their reall presence continueth no longer or at least is tyed no longer to bread and wine nor to any more of it then is receiued and the ministerie thereof lasteth For Extra vsum as they speake that is besides the vse they hold neither the bread nor the wine that remaines to be the bodie and bloode of Christ whereas the other stiflie maintaine that all the hostes that they consecrate are euery one of them the bodie of Christ and therefore they hang them vp which they leaue in a Pixe vnder a Canopie and honour and worship them as the verie bodies of their Sauiour And for the wine they take careful order for that bicause they cannot tell howe so well to preserue and keepe that belike sweete as the other to consecrate no more then their priest may quite and cleane sup vp at that verie time But to let these their disagreeings alone the things wherein they agree herein are nowe to be considered of wherein their manner of reall presence of Christ offers it selfe first Touching the which to begin withall this I dare be bolde to say for I knowe it to be most true how drunken soeuer they be with a conceit to the contrarie it is contrarie to all doctrine taught vs in the Scriptures or in any ancient Father or Councell for six hundred yeeres after Christ at the least For with one consent all these when they speake of Christes presence in this Sacrament it is reall presence to the beleeuing communicant for whom indeed he gaue his bodie and blood that they speake for and that they speake of as for any such reall prefence of his eyther with or vnder bread and wine or vnder the accidentes thereof as these men now plead for neuer eyther any writer of any of the Canonical Scriptures nor any sound Father or Councel euer once dreamed off And this reall true presence of Christ to the right receiuer we do not denie but we vrge teach more plainlie and comfortablie than anic of them doc And this is it that bringeth inseperablie with it eternal life saluation in Christ as for this of theirs the verie force of trueth flat experience haue driuen them to confesse may be and yet the receiuer thereby neuer the better but the worse What a vaine thing then is it for men to keepe such a sturre to the vexing and disturbing of all Christendome for a thing so fruitlesse Alas who is so simple but that he knoweth or may soone knowe that Christes bodie was broken and his bloode shed for vs men and not for breade and wine and therefore that neyther bread nor wine are the thinges that haue to doe with his presence nor yet their accidents but onely we men and then that we may haue it sufficiently to our saluation who seeth not that it is the vainest thing in the world to striue for it for bread and wine and their accidentes Further seeing both of these doe confesse this to be a Sacrament wherof we now intreate neither of them yet could shew or euer went about it that in any other
be vnderstood heere then in all the rest To say that this hath a special and essentiall difference from all other Sacraments and therefore though these phrases be so to be taken in all other yet they cannot so be in this though when they say so they thinke they haue said much to the purpose yet indeed they haue said nothing For who knoweth not that a man hath an essential difference to distinguish him from all other creatures vnder the same General that he is And yet that letteth not but that whatsoeuer belongs to the nature of the General is cōmon to him with al the rest For else he should not be defined by his General So if that which appertains to the nature of a Sacramēt in general of which sort this is that now we talk of were not cōmon vnto this with the rest it could not with thē be said to be a Sacramēt as it is If therfore the outward elements bearing the names of the inward graces neither inforce or impart any such thing in any of the other no reason is there why it should in this And surely the disciples beeing so well acquainted with such kind of phrases in al the sacramēts of the old Testament therby were prepared quietly to heare Christ to vse the like in this and readily rightly they vnderstood him as in the other therfore neuer once were offended or amased at his speach or made any questioning with him eyther then or afterwards about the sense therof Whereas if they had taken them in any such sense and had thought that they did import any such matter as eyther of these sortes of men imagine they did they beeing so bold with him at other times alwaies in matters of farre lesse importance and difficulty as to inquire his meaning they woulde also doubtlesse so haue done in this Which thing in some sort and that with some further matter verie fit to crosse these mens conceit Chrisostome in his 83. Homilie vpon Mathew hath noted saying euen speaking of the wordes of the institution now in question Quomodo non turbati erant cum hoc audissent quia multa magna de hoc antea disseruit c. that is how came it to passe that they were not troubled meaning his disciples when they heard this because many weightie things he had discoursed of this before vnto them And a little after he noteth that he himselfe drunke thereof least hearing those wordes they shoulde haue said what then doe we drinke blood and eate his flesh and therefore shoulde haue beene troubled For when he first spoke hereof saith he many were offended onely for his wordes least therefore heereby that also now should haue chaunced he did this first himself that so he might with a quiet minde induce them to the participation of these mysteries Now as for the second rule to examine our exposition of these wordes by that which I haue said alreadie is both sufficient to iustifie ours and to condemne theirs For in nothing ours can be said to be contrarie or but to carie any shew of contrarietie eyther to the doctrine of good manners or to the analogie of faith if you shoulde examine from point to point our iudgement hereof and of the nature and vse of the whole Sacrament as I haue expressed it and theirs as I lately shewed in the confutation of their reall presence both in shewe and in trueth most directly crosseth contrarieth both For hath not euen nature a loathing to the taking in by mouth and so swallowing of a whole man flesh bloode and bones at one morsell And a man that can be so taken in and eaten of so many communicantes as be in worlde at one time who can be perswaded that he hath the true nature indeed of a man And come to the third that is by the Scriptures themselues to trie this matter by and quickly we shal find by them our exposition warranted and this of theirs and the consequents thereof confuted For first whereas they would countenance theirs against ours by saying that Christes words are plaine without figure looke but a little vpon thē and you shal be inforced to confesse so they also wil they nil they that he hath vsed in the institutiō of this Sacrament in his words sundry figures For first he saith of the one that it was his body giuen for thē as Luke saith or brokē for them as Paule speaketh then of the other that it was his blood shed for them as Mathew Marke Luke report his words so speaking of that which yet then was not done as it is wel known as though thē it had bene done by an vsual figure in the Scriptures vsing the time past or present for the time to come Againe concerning the latter elemēt Mathew saith that he said it was his blood of the new Testament and so doth Mark Luke sets down his words thus This cup is the new Testament in my bloode so also doth Paule wherin wherby any man may see that wilfully will not make himself blind two figuratiue kind of speeches besids this that we striue for For here is the cup cōtaining put for that which was therin cōtained whatsoeuer they would haue that to be wine or his very blood I am sure they neither yet can or wil say that either the one or the other is the new Testamēt it selfe Seing then it might stand with the nature of this Sacrament Christs care desire to be therin vnderstood to vse the figurs what letteth but that we may as lawfully thinke that he vsed the vsual Metonymie vsed in all other Sacraments in giuing the names of body blood to bread wine that were but representatiōs seales of our cōmunion with his body blood to our euerlasting nourishment This variety in these in repeating setting down the words of the institution as may be sene by this that I haue already noted argues that they were not so superstitiously tied to a set sort number of words as these men imagine yea that they so they kept his very sense thought that it was lawful for them thus to ad or change a word or two tending onely to explaine the same hereby it is euident For Pauls word Broken in steed of Lukes Giuen shews how his body should be giuen euen to be broken with sorrows with whippings crowning with thorn nailing as it was to the crosse these two added by thē not vsed by Mat. or Mar. serue to shew vs what bodie of his it is I meane in respect of what state thereof it is that heere by this Sacrament we are occasioned to thinke vpon it and to feede on it and by the other chaunge of their phrase for Blood of the new Testament saying it was the newe Testament in his bloode most plainly we are taught that therefore called heit the blood of the new Testament because the new Testament
remission of our sinnes And yet heereby it is most euident that the bodie and bloode of Christ in respect of this their estate and condition are the bodie and blood of his that expresly by the words of the institution we are heere to seeke for and to feede vpon How can this then be otherwise but as we teach by calling heereby to our remembrance that once most certainely they were thus handled for vs and by beleeuing that therby our saluation was wrought which as oft as we doe we are fed and nourished therewith to eternall life Thus then you see the matter in hand the Analogie of faith and good manners and not onely other Scriptures but the verie words of the institution lead strongly to the maintenāce of our expositiō of Christs words in the institution of this Sacrament and to the vtter ouerthrow of theirs And truely the ancient Fathers as we haue a thousand times shewed thē are wholly also of our side against them It were infinite to bring al that might be found in them to this purpose as by large volumes written and published by vs about this matter we haue made it euident Howbeit somwhat yet now againe let vs heare what some of the chiefe of them haue said Christ tooke bread which comforteth mans heart that he might therby represent the trueth of his body saith Hierome vpon the 26. of Mathew Christ in his last supper saith Cyprian in his sermon de vnctione Chrismatis with his owne hands at his table gaue his Apostles bread wine but vpon the crosse he gaue his body to be woūded by the hands of the souldiers that sincere trueth more secretly imprinted in the Apostles the true sincerity might expound vnto the nations how bread wine was the body blood and after what sort the causes and their effects agreed and diuers names and kindes should be reduced to one essence and the things signifying and the things signified were called with one selfe same names And Ambrose in his 4. booke 4. chapter of Sacraments writeth that as in Baptisme we receiue the similitude of death so in this sacramēt we drink the similitude of Christs blood And Chrysostome most plainly saith in his 11. Homily vpō Mathew that Christ his body it selfe is not in the holy vessels but the mysterie Sacrament therof Augustine in his 57. question vpon Leuiticus prescribeth for a rule that the thing that signifieth is wont to beare the name of the thing which it singifieth as Paule said saith he the rock was Christ not ti signified Christ but euē as it had bene indeed which neuerthelesse was not Christ by substance but by signification And in his 23. Epistle he saith that the similitude betwixt the signe and thing signified is the verie cause why the one beareth the name of the other in Sacramentes and therefore in his third booke of Christian doctrine he saith it is a miserable slauerie of the soule to take the signes for the thinges signified Cap. 5. Christ honored the signes and representations which are seene with the names of his bodie and blood saith Theodoret in his second dialogue Gelasius against Eutiches affirmeth the image similitude of the body and blood to be celebrated in these mysteries Bede vpon Luke 22. writeth that because bread doth comfort mans heart and wine doth make good blood in his bodie therefore the breade is mystically compared to Christs bodie and the wine to his blood And who hath not heard vs an hundred times tell them that Tertullian in his fourth booke against Marcion interpreteth This is my body saying that it is to say this is a figure of my bodie and that likewise Augustine against Adimantus the Manichee writeth that Christ doubted not to say This is my body when he gaue a signe of his bodie and vpon the third Psalme that he saith that Christ admitted Iudas to a banquet where he commended a figure of his bodie to his disciples And what can be plainer then these eyther against them or for vs All these thinges considered therefore we may boldlie conclude that they haue no ground from Christes wordes for their grosse reall presence And surely as little haue they eyther from his omnipotencie Neither his omnipotency nor glorified body will helpe them or from the state of his glorified bodie For he will not shew his omnipotencie in whatsoeuer we list but in effecting whatsoeuer himselfe pleaseth and therefore they failing in the proofe as they haue that it is his pleasure to haue it as they would it is in vaine for them to thinke that this can or will helpe them out But indeed and trueth howsoeuer they would seeme to grounde much vpon his almightinesse to haue a strong faith therein and seeke to discredit our faith in the same yet in this verie point lot theirs and ours be but a little indifferentlie compared togither and ours soone will prooue farre the stronger For I woulde haue them tell me in good sadnesse whether the Centurion Math. 8.8 that professed that he beleeued that though Christ came no nearer his house then he was in respect of his bodilie presence that yet he was perswaded that if he but spake the word his scruant should be healed or Iairus that said come and lay thy handes on my daughter and she shall liue Math. 9.19 shewed themselues to be better perswaded of Christes omnipotencie Sure I am both reason and Christes magnifying of the Centurions faith ought to leade them and all men to giue the preeminence to the Centurion aboue the other many degrees Why should they not then see and confesse that we shewe our selues more strongly perswaded of his omnipotencie then they in that we shew by our doctrine that we firmly beleeue that he can wil euen remaining stil in heauen feed vs with his body brokē blood shed though that were so with them so long agoe as it hath or they that by theirs seeme to be perswaded that this cannot be vnlesse according to their fancy to the shaking and crossing needlesly of so many groūds both of good māners faith as we haue heard he conuey himself into our mouthes And to what purpose is it for the maintenāce of this their opinion for thē to labour as they do to put infinite difference betwixt his body vnglorified glorified and to seeke to perswade men that it may be as they say in respect of his body now glorified though not in respect therof before seing it is most certaine that when Christ instituted this Sacrament his body was not glorified and by his words expresly as I lately shewed he instituted this to be a Sacrament of his body broken and bloode shed For who doth not or at least may not heereby perceiue that we haue not here any otherwise to deale with his estate glorified thē therby now the more strōgly to be perswaded that indeed he is able to feede vs with his broken
body blood shed once to our eternall saluation For that falling out sence and succeeding the institutiō of this Sacrament wherin both by audible word and visible action in breaking bread powring forth of wine calling them as he did he promised vs that proues vnto vs inuincibly that whatsoeuer here he offred promised vs either by word or deed that he hath gone through with for vs and so now that he by his resurrection ascention sitting at the right hand of his Father hath begot vs againe to a liuely hope But vnles we would haue Christ otherwise now to be present to vs and our mouthes then he was when he himself ministred it to the disciples and their mouthes in the state and time of his passible and vnglorified bodie let them neuer talke more of the state of his glorified bodie His wordes shew that this was and is a Sacrament of him dying for vs and so a memoriall of his death and abasement that he vndertooke to merit our saluation by and not of his glorie and of the life that he now hath therein and therefore is able to bestow vpon his and to apply vnto them whatsoeuer in his former estate he deserued The bread called his bodie broken and the wine called his bloode shed as I haue said are both heere set before vs seuered the one from the other and by his commaundement we are bound to take as wel the one as the other and yet the one after the other the more forceably thereby to leade vs to the meditation of his death and passion and to feede vpon his bodie and bloode so handled for vs. And as his hauing not yet so suffered letted not the Apostles when he first did institute it from yet taking occasion thereby and by his administring of it vnto them by faith from feeding vpon his broken bodie and blood to the confirming of their communion with him so no more doth his hauing had his bodie broken and bloode shed nowe aboue a thousand and fiue hundred yeares agoe and neuer since hinder vs from feeding vpon the same by faith through the mightie working of his Spirit For the same Christ that then coulde make that which was not yet done as verelie done to their faith and so to bee fed vpon as done the same nowe doubtlesse is able as easily to make that which was done so long agoe present to our faith to nourish vs to eternall life By this then you see both their reall presence that they talke of to be fonde and to too grosse and the groundes that they hold in common for the same to be as bad The speciall groūds of the Lutherans confuted And to goe on now to scan and examine likewise what they holde seuerally in this case against vs it is notoriously knowne the one sorte the fond imitators of Luther I meane would maintaine their reall presence of his body and blood together with bread and wine in this Sacrament when these common groundes of theirs that they haue with the papistes as they feare will not serue their turne by the force and strength of the trueth of the personall vnion of the two natures in Christ Whereupon as it appeares by their bookes extant and confidently published about this matter I speake it with griefe and cōpassion towards thē because otherwise in the chiefest points of Christian faith we account them our brethren and fellow souldiers against the Antichristian Synagogue of Rome they boldly vrge aduouch teach that immediatly vpon this vnion consummate in the Virgins wombe the natures properties of his Godhead were are so vnited vnto his manhood that as the Godhead is eueriwhere almighty of infinite maiesty c. so is the manhood and therfore in this Sacramēt as they teach Especially they insist vpon the being euery where of his manhood as his Godhead is to this purpose Suppose the antecedent were graunted them yet they could neuer thereupon inferre their consequent For when will they be able to prooue that his Godhead is so present heere with bread wine that the receiuer of thē by his mouth alwaies receiues the other But indeede their antecedent is vntrue absurd verie hetetical but that I know it is a most fearful thing before God to haue our faith in respect of persons contrary to the rule of the holy Ghost Iam. 2.1 and that the Lord will therefore most seuerely punish it especially when wilfully men will set themselues to defende that which they haue but receiued from some person or persons whom they haue in admiration against a clearer trueth crossing the same I should neuer make an end of wondring that men otherwise of such learning and iudgement as some of these bee euer should dare in these daies of so great light and after so often and manifest solemne sentences of condemnation giuen of this their conceit in the auncient and primitiue Churches of Christ set abroach such an assertion The vntrueth thereof appears enough euen by that the Angels saying when he was risen He is risen and is not heere Math. 28.6 For seeing that cannot be vnderstood of his Godhead which is euery where and alwaies was it must of necessitie be vnderstood of his manhood But besides that we haue his owne saying The poore ye haue alwaies with you but me ye shall not haue alwaies Iohn 12.8 to backe the speach of his Angels which as they knowe well inough all the auncient Fathers conferring with that of Math. 28.20 also so vnderstand that by this the presence of his manhood they shewe we may not looke for heere in the earth vntill his second comming after once he had left the world and gone to his father as he said he would Iohn 16 28. by the other yet to our comfort they shew heere we inioy his Godhead Let any man but read Fulgentius his second Booke to King Trasimund Vigilius his fourth Booke against Eutiches Chap. 4. and Augustines 57. Epistle and there he shall find notwithstanding they were as soundly and truely perswaded of the vnion of the two natures in Christ as any of these men be the veritie localitie and circumscriptiblenes of Christes manhoode by these and otherplaces and argumentes so vrged that any man may perceiue this their position was counted verie false in those daies The absurditie thereof appeares in that heerein they take that to be the cause sufficient of his beeing euerie where in his manhood that can be no cause thereof indeed For see we not naturally and inseperably the Sunne and light and heat to be conioyned and yet who findes not daily by experience that the globe of the bodie of the Sunne remaining still in heauen yet we heere in earth inioy both the other Yea many other thinges there are which though they be vnited together yet whereof one streacheth and reacheth further then the other as the sight of the eye reacheth further then the eye it selfe the
to be turned into the bodie and bloode of Christ and therefore to shune both these straites they cannot tell what to vnderstand by it and so are at their wittes end By that which they say and doc they yet are resolute that they coÌ„uey and bannish away the substances of bread and wine and leaue nothing but the bare accidents thereof vnder which they hold lustilie Christ to be flesh blood bone And therefore they sing merilie in their Hymne or Carrol vpon Corpus Christi day Sub diuersis speciebus signis tantùm non rebus latent res eximiae caro cibus sangnis potus manet homo Christus totus sub vtraque specie a sumente non concisus non confractus nec diuisus integer accipitur c. that is Vnder diuerse kinds signes onely and not thinges most excellent thinges lie hid flesh meate bloode drinke yea whole Christ abideth vnder eyther kinde of the taker not bruised not broken nor deuided but whole is he taken But for all this their sturre it should seeme yet that nowe they are perswaded they haue him rather by bannishing of bread and wine though they cannot tell eyther how whither or into what then by transubstantiation of breade and wine thereinto or of anything else Howsoeuer it were or bee that there should remaine nothing but the bare accidentes or out ward formes of bread and wine that is inough vtterly to ouerthrow the nature of the Sacrament For in Sacramentes alwaies there must bee an Analogie betwixt the signes and the thinges signified which cannot be betwixt bare accidents of bread and wine for that they alone feede not at all and the bodie and blood of Christ which are our foode to eternall life and therfore to abolish or abandon by what meanes soeuer bread wine is to destroy quite the nature of the Sacrament That the verie substances thereof remaine for all their prating when they haue vsed all their art the trickes therof they can both Scripture Fathers and reason make it most euident For in the wordes of the institution scanne and marke them wel who list it is most cleare that Christ tooke verie bread and wine and that he both gaue that which he tooke and that they tooke the same and no other though by his institution now chaunged in name vse and estimation as I haue said And therefore Paule retaineth the name of the bread and cup still euen when they come to be eaten and drunken vpon 1. Cor. 11.26 and Christ calles it the fruite of the vine tree and that after he had deliuered it and they had drunken therof Mar. 14.25 And in all other Sacramentes as we haue hearde though the like phrase of speach haue bene vsed yet alwaies haue they beene fulland forcible Sacramentes to offer to deliuer and to seale the deliuerie of the inwarde grace thereby intended to the right receiuers without any such abolishing or transubstantiating of the outwarde elements thereinto as is heere imagined And if Christ had had anie such purpose it had sure beene as easie a matter with him to haue vttered his minde in and by wordes sounding plainely that he ment to effect some such thing as by saying this is turned into my bodie or let this be transubstantiated thereinto or let the substance of this cease and in the romph thereof let my bodie come and bee as onely to haue saide affirmatiuelie that it was his bodie But hauing but saide so it is most certaine it was some certaine thing that he affirmed to be so for he would neuer call bare nothing or an indiuiduum vagum an vncertaine thing as Gardiner holds he ment by This his bodie And therefore wil they nil they by Christs words interpreted as they doe eyther we must haue Christes bodie which once was of the nature of the Virgin his Mother that so he might be that seede of the woman to treade downe the serpentes head and in whome all the nations of the world shoulde be blessed whensoeuer any of their priestes therby intend to consecrate as they speake made of a wafer againe or at least now growne to be such an one as that it can lie hid vnder the forme therof the substance of breade beeing gone to giue it romph But once againe I must tel them that the words of Christ are so farre from sounding any such thing as that if they should be taken litterally as they sound they rather shew that his bodie and blood were become bread wine or turned thereinto then the contrary For when Moses rod was turned into a serpent or when Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt if one shoulde haue saide of the one that it was Moses rod or of the other that it was Lots wife woulde anie thereby haue vnderstoode that he mente that the scrpent was transubstantiated into the rod or the pillar of salt into Lots wife nay would not the verie sounde of the wordes most plainly lead any man rather to vnderstand that his meaning was to shew Moses rod was turned into the serpent and Lots wife into the pillar of salt Wherefore they haue not onely no ground in the Scriptures for this their opinion but not onely other scriptures but the verie words of the institution are directly against them And the ancient Fathers are plaine that though Christ called breade and wine his bodie broken and his blood shed that yet neyther by transubstantion nor anie way else the substances thereof are gone Theodoret both in his first Dialogue second also though most plainely as I haue noted alreadie he confesse that Christ honored bread and wine with the names of his bodie and blood most flatly saith that yet he changed not their natures but added grace to nature and that the mysticall signes after sanctification as he pleaseth to speake goe not from their nature figure or forme And Gelasius against Eutiches writeth directly that in the Eucharist the nature of bread and wine cease not Ambrose also as Gratian alledgeth him De consecr dist 2. cap. pâ—nis writing de sacramentis of the Sacraments noteth that in this Sacrament the word of Christ is so powerfull vt sint quae erant in aliud commutentur that they remaine that which they were before and yet are turned into another thing And if we would know in what sense and sort they are chaunged into another thing remaining also still the same that they were before the same Gratian a little before in the chapter quia corpus teacheth vs to learne that of our selues by the chaunge that we finde in our selues by regeneration and that out of Eusebius Emissenus which as he noteth and we all know is true not at all in respect of outward substance for that is the same in vs when we are regenerate that it was before but onelie of inward grace and qualitie which is that which I call heere in this Sacrament an alteration of the outward elementes in name
vse and estimation Bertram in a set treatise written of this matter as it is thought in Carolus Calunus time by manie argumentes proues bread and wine still to remaine And Elfricke about the yeare 996. as Fox noteth in two Saxon Epistles which to that ende he recordes therein taught bread and wine heere no otherwise to be the bodie and bloode of Christ then Manna and the water of the rocke in the wildernes were Christ which all men knowe they were but by representation and signification and not really for that then Christ was not become man And the same man as maister Fox noteth translated a sermon out of Latine into the Saxon tongue which he insertes wholly in his story also by him then appointed to be red on Easter day to the Saxons inhabiting then this land which who so readeth shal finde that it contains much direct matter proofe both against transubstantiation and grosse reall presence built thereupon In Bedes time also who died about the yeare 734. the same doctrine was continued heere and elsewhere as it appeareth by that which he hath written vpon the institution as it is set downe by Luke 22. where he shewes as I haue noted before not onely the likelyhoode of the vse of bread and wine in nourishing and cheering our bodies to be the cause they beare the names of the bodie and blood of Christ which semblablie nourish and feede our soules but also he so speaketh and writeth thereof that yet he shewes he tooke them to be bread and wine still And as by this you may see then that both Scriptures and Fathers are against them herein so questionles is all sound reason most stronglye which as long as it is not controwled or crost either by the doctrine of faith or good manners taught in the Scriptures is worth the listening vnto Now reason and all our sences and the experience that we haue had and may haue of the sowreing of the wine of the mouling and corrupting of the hoasts so that wormes may and haue bred thereof and that Dogges Battes Rattes and Mise and so not onely vnbeleeuers can feede thereof are most sure euidence vnto vs that for all their great brags to the contrary with all their crossing whispering breathing becking and doucking and demure pronuncing of the words they cānot neither once remoue the substances of bread and wine away nor bring Christes bodie or blood into the romphs thereof For neither can these things that I haue spoken of all or any of thē be incident to bare accidents neither yet to the most precious body blood of Christ Iesus God and man For who knoweth not that bare accidents are not nor can be subiectes of such accidents as these bee Neither can they be matter to nourish and feed eyther man or beast withal or to breede any such thinges vpon And howsoeuer these men can finde in their heartes to grant that the bodie of the Christ whom they serue may be subiect to all these thinges sure I am the bodie of the true Christ that the saying of the Psalmist might be verified therof Thou wilt not suffer thy holie one to see corruption Psal 16.10 could not possiblie be helde of death vntill it rotte and therefore much lesse will the heauenly Father now that it is glorified let it be eyther meat for such filthie vermin or for the mouthes of wicked men or to be subiect to putrefaction that wormes shal breede theron But I knowe though some of them haue not beene ashamed to saie that he can and may be eaten of such beastes as well as of such men whereof none of them now doubt yet generally they say when such thinges fall out with the outward elements as I haue spoken of then Christ by his almightie power conueyeth himselfe away and lets the olde substances come againe and ioyne themselues with their accidentes In the meane time then I would the best studied of them in this point could eyther tell vs what was becomde in the meane time of the substances or how their accidentes were kept or vnderpropt without substances and so subiectes to be in And if it were granted then that Christ to exempt and to preserue his bodie from these inconueniences remoues it away before any of these can fal out vnto it yet then they graunt that the best shift that their popish Christ hath in this case is to runne away or to giue place Such a Christ may become such kinde of Christians but surely the wise hearted Christians would be loth to trust to such a Christ for their saluation whose best shift is thus to flie that a Mouse eate him not and I would aduise them not to trust themselues too much to such a dastardly Christ I would thinke that they should would rather hold that he driues all these away then that indeede he should be driuen away of any of them and that therefore when any such thing seemeth to fall out otherwise eyther the priest consecrated not well and so failed and came short of transubstantiation or that the sences are deceiued in thinking any such thing in haue happened But seeing they like better to prouide for their Christ by his suddaine departure I would haue them to tell mee whether they worke a greater miracle in transubstantiating breade and wine into him or these kinde of cattell in trasubstantiating him againe into the old bread and wine And I would be glad once to here a substantiall reason why Christs wordes should not or did not proue as powerfull to driue the accidents away as the substance or why they beleeuing notwithstanding Christs plaine wordes that accidents of bread and wine remaine because the senses telles them so they should not or will not beleeue the same senses as plainly assuring them that the substances themselues also remaine that therefore they are there also But what should I trouble my selfe by reason and sense to confute them which as it should seeme haue herein for the maintenance of their owne wilful conceit pride pompe cōmoditie lost both sense reason and religion Notwithstanding to all such as haue these I trust I haue said sufficient to make not onely the verity of our owne doctrine touching this Sacrament sufficiently to appeare but also to the full displaying disgrasing for euer with such of the vanity of both these our aduersaries herein Wherefore to returne to my text and so to goe on againe therewith I hope yet by this that I haue saide of this matter you now plainly perceiue that notwithstanding the doctrine and vse of this Sacrament the vnion and communion that we must seeke to haue with Christ though it be true reall in respect of him and vs the persons things to be vnited that yet it is not grosse carnall to be attained vnto by the instruments or members of our bodie at all as these our aduersaries teach but that by the worde Sacraments God offers him
THE HIGH VVAY TO HEAVEN BY the cleare light of the Gospell cleansed of a number of most dangerous stumbling stones thereinto throwen by Bellarmine and others IN A Treatise made vpon the 37.38 and 39. verses of the 7. of Iohn wherein is so handled the most sweete and comfortable doctrine of the true vnion and communion of Christ and his Church and the contrarie is so confuted as that not onely thereby also summarilie and briefly and yet plainly all men may learne rightly to receiue the sacrament of Christs blessed bodie and blood but also how to beleeue and to liue to saluation And therefore entitled The high way to Heauen By Thomas Sparke Doctor of Diuinitie Printed by R. R. for Robert Dexter 1597. To the Right Honourable and most reuerend Father the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie Primate of all England and one of her Maiesties most honorable priuie Councell his verie good Lord Thomas Sparke wisheth all health happinesse and prosperitie to his owne heartes good contentation and comfort MAnie and sundrie fauours and kindnesses Right Honorable and right reuerende in the Lord for these twentie yeares space that I haue knowne yow receiued at your Graces hands haue alwaies made me not onely to loue and reuerence yow but alsoe to thinke my selfe vnfainedly soe much bounde and beholden vnto your Grace as that I haue a long time beene of this minde that it is not sufficient to discharge me of vnthankfulnesse by bare wordes though neuer so ful of kindnesse thankefulnesse both in your absence and presence to testifie the same whereof yet euer since I first knew you I haue beene carefull and mindefull and therefore I haue long agoe resolued my selfe hauing no better meanes to doe it by by dedicating some part of my poore labours vnto you to giue you and all others to whom the sight thereof shall come some publike and assured testimonie of my duetifull and thankefull heart towardes you Whereupon hauing at the earnest and importunate sute and request of diuers of my worshipfull and good friendes not long since committed to writing the Treatise following which in effect they first heard me from point to point in this manner deliuer vnto them in certeine sermons I haue now thought it good in this sort somewhat enlarged to publish it the better to satisfie their desires and to the end aforesaid I haue made bolde to dedicate the same vnto your Grace beseeching you to accept therof rather according to the minde of the offerer which I protest vnto you is full of loue and reuerence towardes you than to the simplicitie meanesse of the thing it selfe which I must needes confesse in respect of the handling is much vnworthie of such an Honourable patrone as your selfe is As for the matter it is I am perswaded answerable to the title that I haue giuen it which is The high way to Heauen For therin first is shewed howe the lawe is our schoolemaister to Christ by causing vs to knowe our sinnes and to feele the weight and burthen thereof to make vs wearie of the same and therefore to hunger and thirst after him and then what Christ is in person and office and how he is to be apprehended and fed on to saluation by a true and liuely saith in him is largely plainlie declared and lastly also heerein such as are and haue beene first duely throwen downe by the lawe and after truelie raised vp againe by the Gospel in Christ are taught how they are to liue and spend the rest of their daies in holinesse and righteousnesse Which I am sure is the olde ancient beaten waie throughout all the whole course of the olde and new Testament and in all sound antiquitie that the saints and seruantes of God haue taken to be the onelie saife and sure wace wherby they haue sought to come to the kingdom of heauen Your Grace therfore being one as I fullie perswade my selfe you are that seeke to come thither by this onelie waie and therefore one also that is verie desirous that all others should walke thitherwards in an eauen and streight course therunto in respect of the matter therein handled my good hope is you will not be ashamed or thinke much at all that it seeketh thus to come abroad vnder your countenance protection For though the waie be neuer so well knowne alreadie and be beaten and trode out by manie before this and that perhaps more exactly and substantially than it is herein in by me yet seeing manie are still to go this same way all cannot hit of the same guids still Sathan wil be busie by his complices eyther to keepe men frō finding it or by one sleight or other to turne them out of it I trust that after so manie that haue gone before me in guiding men into and keeping them in this way this my profered seruice to that end may will bee yet profitable vnto many Now these 24. years at the least it hath pleased the Lord to vse my poore ministrie and that his name be blessed for it in great peace quietnesse yet I haue therin alwaies bene of this mind and am will be stil not to esteeme or know anie thing but euen this way through Iesus Christ and him crucified 1. Cor. 2.2 And sure I am I find and I perswade my selfe I shall still though I cōtinued therin twise as long more this to be a matter so necessarie and of that importance beyond all other to be insisted in and dwelt vpon that I should neuer haue either leasure or pleasure to trouble eyther presse or pulpit with any thing without the verie bondes and strict limites hereof For alas euery where yea euen where most paines hath bene taken and yet is by catechising of conference with the people yea by view of their liues there is eyther such grosse ignorance heereof or erring or halting heerein to be found seene amongst thē that if all the ministers of England had the tongues both of men and Angels they should find work inough throughlie to employ themselues in onelie about the reformation heereof I would to God therfore that all controuersies wherof men may be ignorant without danger either of not finding or of not leasing this heauenly way might either be kept and reserued onely to brotherly and friendlie conferences among the godlie learned or else that for euer they might be faire dead and buried amongst vs and that so that all of vs as one man with one heart and with one mind might would ioyne all our forces together to leade men aright into this waie and to keepe them on streight in the same what subtiltie and cunning soeuer Sathan and his instrumentes should at anie time vse to the contrarie For we may be sure so that he any way can get men to misse or to lease this waie whiles we are busying our owne heades and the peoples with other matters of farre lesse importance
to deliuer vs from the curse of the law And if the forgiuenes of our sinnes that we looke for at Gods hand stretch not thus far how could they be said to be made as white as snowe or woole Isay 1.18 when they are forgiuen or how could it be said of God when he forgiues thē that he would remember them no more as it is 31.34 Heb. 10.17 Yea that then he castes them al into the bottom of the sea as he promiseth he wil Math 7.19 And yet as necessarie comfortable and certaine as you see this doctrine to be the papists can not find in their harts to let vs goe away with it thus wholie and freely For first they directly hold that sins falne into after baptisme haue a number of fountaines of water to wash them in and meanes to purge the owners thereof besides Christ Iesus and his merits Their sacrament of pennance which they holde to consiste of contrition confession and satisfaction and the priestes absolution thereupon in this case must serue vs as a second planke after shipwracke to fly vnto and to escape the danger of the tempestuous seas of Gods wrath by and if this will not serue then Masses satisfactorie workes done by mans owne selfe and others extraine vnction and lastly the enduring of the paines of purgatory and the mediation of Saints and Angels all laid together shal help them quite to be discharged from those sinnes and the punishments yet by them to be suffered for them from which they durst not for all this euidence that I haue brought looke fully to be deliuered by the precious blood of Christ Iesus And yet they cannot be ignorant that as in the institution of the sacrament of his body and blood he calde the cup the newe testament in his blood which shoulde be shed for the remission of sinnes Mat. 26.28 that so when it was shed to that end and therefore he euen readie to die that to shewe that by that death of his all meritorious suffering satisfying for sinne had an end he said consummatum est that is it is finished Io 19.30 And that therfore in the epistle to the Hebrwes the absolute sufficiencie of the sacrifice offered by Christ to purchasse vs full and perfect redemption and saluation by the remission of our sinnes once for all by his owne person is so aduouched as though the holie Ghost therein of purpose directed the writer to preuent and to confute all these deuises who may not see The stone that they woulde seeme especially to stumble at and whereby to fall into these conceites is that which we reade 2. Sam. 12. that notwithstanding vpon Danids repentance he tolde him that God had forgiuen him his sinne and put it away verse 13. yet he not onelie denounceth a iudgment against him vpon occasion of that his sinne but also it after followeth and is shewed howe it was in deed executed vpon him For here vpon when other shiftes faile them to countenance their antichristian ecclipsing and defacing the full and stee remission of sinnes ye of all our sinnes originall and actuall before baptisme and after that any way are remissible they imagine yet they may hold thisfast that howsoeuer by and in him we may haue remission of the sins them selues and release of the eternall punishmentes due therefore that yet there may and doeth remaine some temporary to be abid or satisfied for by our selues or other of our good friendes either here in this life or in purgatory in the life to come But alas who seeth not that the ground which they haue from hence is to weake and sandy to build such a huge heape of satisfactory workes and sufferings vpon as here vpon to rob Christ and to aduatire and enrich them selues they woulde faine builde For though this and the like dealing of GOD with his seruantes proue that God may and doth for iust causes known vnto himselfe take occasion by their sinnes to chastise them and to correct them for the same though he haue before forgiuen them their sinnes and neuer meane that they shall therefore be condemned yet neither this nor all the like examples euer can proue that by the enduring of or satisfying for these any way or by any bodie Gods meaning euer was that they shoulde perfect the worke of the remission of their sinnes For doubtlesse his sonne hauing vndertaken the purchasing of this for vs at his handes and there lacking in him neither skill nor power nor affection to go through with the worke which he had taken in hand without doing of him to manifest and open wrong in robbing of him in taking from him that which is his due we must fully be persuaded that for our sinnes he hath so fully satisfied his heauenly father that he will thinke we doe him greate iniurie and much staine his iustice if by any other doing or suffering we shoulde offer him any other price or paiment againe therefore Such punishments therefore either threatned by God or afflicted vpon his children after in Christ their sinnes are forgiuen them they are his fatherly chastisments to teach them the better to see the vilenesse and grieuousnesse of sinne and serue both them and other as Gods sanctified meanes to warne them to take more heed of sinne thereafter and to mortifie them therevnto but in no sort must wee be so foolish as with these kinde of men to imagine that they must either be endured or otherwise bought out by our owne satisfactions or of others to make perfect or to consummate the full remission of our sinnes By these deuises they set their priests and prelats a loft in the consciences of men as though they could absolue them and discharge them from that from which all the blood shed of Christ Iesus though neuer so well beleeued in hath not yet quitte them and so by their deuise of purgatorie and their manner of releeuing of soules there by their pardons masses and dirges c and by doing of these and by their absolution extraine vnction and their taking vpon them to offer Christ againe to his father for them as though his owne offering of him selfe coulde not serue the turne they haue wonderfully enriched themselues What other reasons soeuer they may pretend hereof if these were not the reasons indeede that set them and helde them in this way they had long agoe or would quicly be glad with vs to preach and to beleeue ful remission of all sinnes both in respect of the guiltinesse and punishment also by and thorow the onely sufferings and satisfaction done by Christ For what reason in the worlde can cause them but once to thinke that Christ hath borne the burthen of our sins but so in his owne bodie vpon the tree that he should when he had done returne the same againe vpon vs in some forte to beare and to suffer for Or if they woulde needes holde this to be thus howe can they tell howe much
will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Iohn 1.12 13. And Christ hath most plainely said Iohn 3.5.6 Verely verely I say vnto thee except a man be borne of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God that which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the Spirit is Spirit And yet more plainely to assure vs of the trueth of this point Paule in expresse words hath taught vs that faith is the fruite of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Ordinarily the worde preached But yet we must not thinke though the Spirit can extraordinarily worke this faith without meanes immediately where when and in whom it listeth that yet notwithstanding ordinarily it doth it by the ministrie of the word and that preached For so Paule concludeth saying Rom. 10.17 Then faith is by hearing and hearing by the worde of God And therefore accordingly 1. Cor. 1.17 he writeth That seeing the world by wisedome knew not God in the wisedome of God it please him by the foolishnesse of preaching to saue those that beleeue And therefore also he notes it is an especial fruit and effect of Christes ascension Ephes 4.10.11 c. that he gaue and bestowed sundrie ministries there mentioned vpon his Church for the repairing of the Saintes for the worke of the ministrie and for the edification of the bodie of Christ Till we all meete togither in the vnitie of faith and the acknowledging of the sonne of God vnto a perfect man and vnto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ that we henceforth be no more children wauering and caried away with euerie winde of doctrine by the deceit of men and craftinesse whereby they lay in waite to deceiue Saint Peter also agreable heereunto in his first Epistle Cap. 1.22.23 c. noteth that our souls are purified in obeying the truth thorow the spirit being borre again not of mortall seed but of immortal by the word of God which after there he saith endureth for euer and is that which is preached amongst them Whereupon therefore in the next chapter he exhorteth them to lay aside all malitiousnes all guile dissunulation enuie and euill speaking and as new borne babes to desire the sincere milke of the worde that they may grow vp thereby if it be so they had tasted how bountifull the Lord was Vers 1.2.3 Whereunto we had as much neede to listâ—n as euer they had For these are the daies wherein we liue wherin that prophecie of Christ is fulfilled Mat. 34. touching the danger that should be by false prophets and teachers able if it were possible to seduce the verie elect Verse 24. and wherein he may behold multitudes for lacke of foode and faithfull preachers and teachers as sheepe hauing no sheepheard dispersed and scattered and therefor in respect wherof he may also say Surely the haruest is great but the labourers are few And by the administration of Sacraments I woulde to God therefore we coulde and woulde euerie one of vs according to his counsell there Praie the Lord of the haruest to thrust out labourers into his haruest Matth. 9.3.6 c. Besides the bare preaching of the worde as it is well knowne and confessed of all for the better both breading and nourishing of this our faith as an outward good meanes for the spirite to worke that effect in vs by our most gratious and louing GOD knowing howe slowe to beleeue we woulde bee hath left and giuen vnto vs visible and palpable Sacramentes thereby as it were to seale and more particularly to apply vnto vs all the good promises of saluation in Christ Iesus as namelie nowe baptisme and the supper of the Lorde to vs of the newe Testament The first whereof offereth vnto vs and sealeth the deliuerie to the right receiuer thereof of his regeneration teaching him to looke for it at the handes of God the Father through God the Sonne by the mightie working of the holie Ghost onelie in that onelie he is baptized in water in their names And the other is a Sacrament of his continuall nourishment to eternall life in and by the broken bodie and bloodeshed of Christ Iesus And therefore as to be a man it is necessarie but once to be borne but yet after often to bee sedde so is it most necessarie for those that woulde euer growe to bee perfect men in Christ Iesus but once to bee baptized but often to receiue the other Sacrament And it must be remembred alwaies that both these offer and set before vs one and selfe same Christ the one that he may by his blood wash vs cleane from our sinnes and regenerate vs that we may beginne to lead a newe and a holy life the other that by his body broken and his bloode shed for vs he may be both meate and drinke and sufficient spirituall foode and nourishment vnto our hungrie and thirstie soules but then withall we may vnderstand that the same Christe to the same endes is offered still vnto vs when his Gospell is preached vnto vs onely this is the difference as I said before that the worde offers and sets him before vs in generall and these in particuler and speciall manner leade vs vnto him And whereas the word to breede or nourish faith in vs stricketh onely the sense of our hearing these duely ministred doe not onely the better to prouoke and strengthen the same mooue and strike that but also our sight smelling tast and feeling And therefore as it was noted by Paule Heâ—â—â— 2. that the cause why the worde which the Iewes heard in the wildernesse profited them not because it was not mixed with faith in those that heard it so is it most certaine that these shall not profit vs though outwardly we be partakers thereof neuâ—r so much if we haue not faith to pearse further than to the outward elementes and if it be a fault so to harden our heartes when the worde is but preached that we take not occasion thereby to beleeue it must needes be a farre greater fault if these added therunto we be still vnfaithfull And therefore as in respect of hearing of the word the Apostle said Heb. 3.5 So long as it is said to day harden not your heartes as in the prouocation for some when they heard prouoked him to anger so say I vnto you in respect of both much more To this ende neuer forget the examples of Simon Magus and of Iudas whereof though the one was baptized as we read he was Act. 8.18 and the other was with Christ at the institution of the other Sacrament as it appeareth Luke 22.21 yet as it appeares in both those chapters for that they neither of them had any sound or true faith they were neuer the better but the worse for that to their other sinnes they added in the receiuing of these the prophaning as much as lay in them of both thes If when the word is preached
then to the vniting of Christes bare bodie and bloode and the right communicant togither For as he both in bodie and soule standeth neede of him to be his Sauiour so it is certaine as Christ both God and man perfecte God and perfecte man in one person is the head and husband of his Church and the redeemer and Sauiour thereof so here faith is to feed so vpon his body broken blood shed as that withall it must stedfastly conceiue and beleeue that it was is the body and blood of such an one as was and is both very God and man and yet but one person For thence it cōmeth that the things done for vs by his broken bodie and blood shed though in number and time wherein they were done they were finite are in the sight of the heauenly Father of infinite value and dignitie as once I said before to worke our perfect redemption and saluation that they were done by such a man that had not onely a perfect bodie and soule of a man and in them both was such an one as it became vs to haue that was seperate from sinners Heb. 7.27 but also was and remaineth for euer a true euerlasting God and therefore was able thus to dignifie the workes done for vs in his manhood And to this end it is most heauenly and diuinely noted Heb. 9. that the force that the offring that Christ made of himselfe vpon the crosse for vs to purge our consciences from dead workes to serue the liuing God commeth and riseth from hence that then by his eternall Spirit he offered himselfe without fault to God for vs. And though I am not ignorant that Chrisostome to very good purpose in his 46. Homilie vpon Iohn interpreting those wordes of Christ Iohn 6.63 It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the wordes that I speake vnto you are spirit and life notes that they were spoken by Christ not to disable his flesh altogether from being profitable because so to thinke is absurd but to warne vs that carnally we vnderstand not his wordes which by his interpretation there we doe if we take his wordes simplie as they sound thinke no otherwise of them for that as he saith all misteries are to be considered with inward eies that is spiritually yet I cannot but thinke with others also that in so saying Christ meante not onely to teach vs that his wordes were not grosly and camally to betaken that he had spoken of the eating of his flesh and drinking of his bloode as the Capernaits and such of his hearers that beleeued not then tooke them but spiritually as his beleeuing disciples who notwithstanding them taried with him when the other murmured or departed by occasion thereof but that therin he had this further meaning and purpose to shew them that if his flesh and blood were as they tooke them but the flesh and bloode of a man then they could not be indeed such foode for their soules as he had taught them to be but beeing as they were the flesh and blood of such an one as withall was a spirit and that an eternall creating Spirit euen very God thence they might be sure that they rightly fed on by faith and the spirite both could and would bring life Thus therefore we teach and exhort all men in the vse of this Sacrament to feede vpon the bodie broken and blood shed of our Christ and Sauiour And yet thus we speake with Christ and according to the phrase vsed in the institution therof because as by Christ God and man as by our onely mediatour we come to the Father so it hath pleased God in his word to reueale him vnto vs that by his manhood and the workes done therin we should grow on to faith in his Godhead vnited thereunto and so shining manifesting it selfe vnto vs therin Thus then I hope by this time euen by this plaine and short declaration onely of our faith and iudgement concerning the doctrine and nature of this Sacrament The conclusion of this our doctrine you may most clearely see and perceiue that we are wonderfully wronged and slandered and that so also are all the Churches of our profession by our aduersaries whiles to discredit vs withal they would make men belecue that we make it but a naked Supper of bread and wine and so seeke to feede our people therein but with bare signes and figures For you may see and heare that most plainely and earnestly we vrge our hearers therein to seeke to feed to their eternall saluation of Christ Iesus himselfe both God and man and so many other notable vses thereof as you heare we teach that euen in respect thereof all the names and titles that any sound antiquitie hath honoured this Sacrament withal may most iustly be giuen vnto it as it is ministred and vsed by vs. We finde it hath beene called the Supper of the Lord the Table of the Lord the Sacrament of his bodie and bloode the Eucharist a Sacrifice and Synaxis and vsually with vs it is called the Cōmuniō And which of these is it not with vs It is the supper of the Lord because as we teach at the last supper he instuted it and it is his Table because therin he feedeth his with himself it is the Sacrament of his body blood because to his it is a sacred meanes of the Lord to nourish strengthen and exercise their faith therein it is the Eucharist because thereby we are so directly forceably occasioned as we are to yeeld all heartie thankes vnto God for the death and passion of Christ lesus whereof it is so notable a memorial and a Sacrifice euen therfore also it may be tearmed also Synaxis it is because it is an excellent bond of our assemblies and meetings together to receiue it and lastly worthily we may and doe call it the Communion be cause it is a seale first of our communion with Christ and then of one of vs with an other in him And yet for all this though this most certainely be the generall doctrine held with one consent by all the Churches that professe the Gospell with vs except of a fewe peeuish and wilfull Lutherans our aduersaries nor these neither will not be satisfied but when we haue said and done what we can all is nothing with them that in this case we say or doe vnlesse we will with them by vertue of Christes wordes spoken by him in the institution heere of hold such a real presence of Christes bodie and blood in this Sacrament as that by the mouthes of all commers thereunto and receiuers thereof haue they true faith or no his verie bodie and blood really be taken in and sed vpon Which beeing a doctrine so directly contrarie to that which lutherto I haue taught you rouching our vnion and communion with Christ by faith and his spirit onely especially seeing also it is to be feared that a number
Sacrament either of the olde or new Testament there was euer any such real coniunction of the inward and spiritual part thereof with the outward and yet al men know for all that they were and are effectuall Sacramentes and seales of the deliuerie thereof to the right receiuer what reason in the world can they haue why they should not thinke that this likewise may be and also is a full and effectuall Sacrament to participate the bodie and bloode of Christ without any such coupling of them and the outward elements therof as for the defence of this their real presence here they vrge If that were heere necessarie it should be so eyther by the generall right of all Sacramentes or by some speciall right that may be shewed this hath therunto But neither of these can they or shall they euer be able indeed to shew in this case Further Christs owne sitting visibly seuered in place without any altering of his forme or mouing of his place hauing vttered the words of the institution they being doubtlesse as powrefull then as euer they were since or shal be to make him really to be present to and with the outward elements doth most clearely ouerthrow this conceite And for the next of hauing him so really heerewith present and conioyned that the receiuers thereof though they haue neyther faith nor good manners yet receiue him also therwith as I haue alreadie sufficiently proued it is both against Scripture and sound antiquitie and the former beeing so absurd whereupon it followeth and is built as I haue nowe shewed it is that must also therewith fall downe and be ouerthrowne Yet for the further mabling of thee welbeloued to see yet more not onely the vanitie and impietie thereof vnderstand that such a kinde of presence of Christ shakes all the articles touching the manhood of Christ and in verie deed leades men most strongly so to spoyle him of all the true properties of his manhood that in effect it leadeth them and most forceably teacheth them to denie him indeede to be come into the flesh and to be the seede of the woman of Abraham Isaac and Iacob of Iuda Iesse and Dauid according to the ancient prophesies that are of the Messiah And so for a bootlesse eating of him and fruitlesse as they themselues must needes confesse this mouth-eating of him to be for that they graunt ouen to the worst sort of men that receiue the outward elements in the end they will leaue vs no true Christ at all eyther for vnbeleeuers or beleeuers to feede vpon I knowe their refuge and shift is to auoide this withall to say that it is by miracle as they teach and yet Christes manhood and all the articles touching the same true sound and whole Indeede any man may see that eyther they must say so or else they can say nothing and that in trueth and of absolute necessitie it must be graunted to be the greatest miracle that euer was wrought if it be as they say and yet all these things be vpheld sound according to the true ancient catholicke faith For of both these it must needs follow that Christ at one and selfe same time hath a bodie visible and inuisible palpable and impalpable compassed in place and vncompassed yea that he hath but one bodie and yet many bodies or that one multiplied into many vnlesse contrary to manifest Scripture they wildenie him in the heauens Which shall containe him as Peter saith vntill the restitution of al thinges Act. 3.21 to haue though a glorified bodie yet a true bodie the contrarie whereof all the ancient Fathers as they know well enough with vs against them haue taught And they know though sundrie of these Fathers of purpose haue written of the miracles of the Scripture that yet they haue not once reckoned vp this of theirs amongst them Neither haue they any reason why to thinke that there is heere any such A mysterie and great mystery we willingly acknowledg it to be that in the right vse of this Sacrament Christ by his Spirit by the meanes of the faith of his verily vnites himself vnto his but yet no miracle we count it or cal it because it is Gods ordinary work in other Sacraments so to cōmunicate himselfe to those that rightly vse them and because when he worketh a miracle there is some straunge thing done beyond nature that the verie senses can iudge of which we finde not heere For they all with one consent iudge them in respect of their substances to be verie bread and wine still in the mouthes of all receiuers O but say they neyther sense nor reason are to be consulted withall in this case Indeed I graunt they neuer are against any trueth certainely taught and warranted by the Scriptures but when their iudgement concurres and consents therewith then it is verie lawfull and good to listen thereunto and so alwaies haue the godlie learned in all ages thought and taught And therefore seeing both sense and reason striue against this their deuise for the maintenance of Christes true manhoode and the right sense of all the articles of our faith touching the same with vs euen thereby their cause hath a greater wound than they are euer able to cure againe Besides all this whiles they thus teach without all warrant from Christ or hir word they are compelled least otherwise they shoulde be inforced most absurdly to say that the wicked eate the bodie and blood of Christ to saluation to seperate Christ and his sauing graces the one from the other whereas they cannot be seuered For that must alwaies remaine an absolute trueth Whosoeuer eateth his flesh and drinketh his bloode hath eternall life Iohn 6.54 and so that also he that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath not the sonne hath not life Iohn 5.12 A spirituall vnion and communion with him they shall both finde oft promised and spoken of as I haue at large alreadie shewed but a beeing of his bodie and bloode in the verie mouthes of all receiuers as they talke of otherwise then Sacramentally that is when the outward sacramentes or signes therof are there they shall neuer finde so much as once spoken for in the scriptures or in any sound and ancient writer indeed I cannot denie but that indeed the Capernaits Iohn 6. by misconceiuing of Christes speeches there had of the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood began to dreame that he meant some such thing but we haue heard that Chrisostome plainely sheweth by the answere that he made them that he had no such meaning his wordes were spiritually to be vnderstood and so should giuelife and not otherwise And Athanasius vpon these wordes Whosoeuer speaketh a worde against the Sonne of man writeth that withall then Christ put them in minde of his ascension as indeed he did Iohn 6.62 to draw them from corporall and fleshly vnderstanding of his wordes And therefore verie excellently hath Augustine to preuent
conceites cogitations of the mind soule of man further then eyther the soule or bodie themselues What an absurd kind of reasoning is it then for to say Christes Godheade and manhoode are vnited therefore wheresoeuer the Godheade is there must the manhoode be also And the hereticalnesse thereof is monstrous and intollerable For not onely with Marcion it transformes Christes true manhood into a meere phantasme or imagination of such a thing but also in thus confounding the properties of the two natures it confoundes the natures themselues and so eyther makes Christes Godhead or manhoode with Eutiches to swallowe vp the one the other or which is as absurd makes Christes person to haue in it one estentiall and true Godhead and an other communicated vnto his manhood beginning when the personall vnion of these two natures begonne which sauours strongly towardes Arianisme Besides all this if this were true that they say that streight vpon this vnion of the two natures his manhood had the properties of the Godhead communicated vnto it then not onely to the shaking but to the quite subuerting of all the Articles of our faith touching his manhood we must hold that assone as this vnion was consummate in his mothers wombe so soone he was there and euerie where else and whiles he liued he was not onely where he was seepe and heard but also euery where and the like we must hold to be true when he died was buried descended into hell rose againe ascended sitteth at the right hand of the Father and when he shall come againe to iudgement that is that in his verie manhood at one self same time he was vpon the crosse and not vpon the crosse in his graue and not in his graue that he descended into hell and that yet he was not in hell that he rose againe out of his graue and did not ascended vp into heauen and yet tarried still below in the earth that he sits at the right hand of his Father in heauen and yet is elsewhere and that he shall come from thence to iudgement and yet was neuer gone from hence because at all these times his Godhead was is and shall be euery where and therefore his manhoode Yea we must hold that he was at one selfe same time compassed in place and yet filled euery place that he was passible and impassible infinite and finite visible and inuible in respect of his manhood the one through the naturall condition thereof and the other through a communicated Godhead therunto All which eyther quite raise these Articles before touched out of the Creed or at least they inforce vs to conceiue them in such a fond sense as neither the Scriptures nor any auncient writer lead vs vnto or incourage vs in Heereupon it comes that in plaine tearmes because the Article of the ascention is most vrged against them that they are not ashamed some of the greatest of them to interprete that to be no chaunging at all of his place but a becomming inuisible whereas before he was visible By which new kinde of Diuinitie we may say that he that was seene before in a romth is gone out of it he that was below is gone vp into vpper romth if he haue but hid himselfe behinde the curteines And seeing by the same reason they must be driuen to inteprete the rest in like manner hereupon also it will followe that his leauing his mothers wombe and his rising out of the graue and therefore his not beeing founde there in his bodie was but a deceiuing of the senses of his mother and of those that sought him in his graue and could not finde him for he was there stil though she thought that she was quite deliuered of him and they could not finde him there So also by this when he was dying vpon the crosse visibly in all other places he was inuisibly in his verie same manhood aliue and not toucht by his enemies O what a ridiculous monstrous and foolish assertion is this whereupon all these most grosse absurdities both against reason and all religion follow Who can once enter but into the view thereof whose heart withall will not tremble and quake and for the horrour thereof be extre emely amazed and astonied The Lordes name therefore for euer be blessed that hitherto hath kept these our Churches from the infection of the poyson heereof and I beseech him for his Christes sake that for euer he would vouchsafe so to doe still Luther neuer sought to defend his Consubstantiation with this yea his best friendes that he had and amongst them that famous learned man Phillip Melancton plainely reporte that yet he was brought to see his errour therein ere he died though he liued not to rase it out of his bookes Since his preposterous followers of a wilful eagernes to maintaine that which once heerein they had vndertooke beeing driuen to see the weaknesse of the former groundes that they had before common with the papists haue as with the furious tempest of contention thus runne themselues vpon this rocke The Lond in his mercy graunt them in time to see their folly that they may beartily repent heereof and of the destruction of the Churches of Christ whereof by this meanes they haue beene perilous authors Amen Amen The special grouÌ„ds fruits of the popish real presence viewed confuted Now thus to leaue these and to come to the Papistes to viewe what speciall groundes and conceites they haue for the and intenance of their reall presence and so whither they are growne thorowe the good liking that they haue of their opinion truely I see I shall enter into the rauing of surely a rotten dunghil the fauour wherof may iustly offende both God and man For by occasion of this their opinion of reall presence by retue of Transubstantiation they haue transformed this Sacrament into a Masse which they may worthily so call it consisteth of such a masse of errours and impieties For thereby whereas by Christes institution it is a Sacrament As first their making of it a propitiatorie sacrifice wherein GOD offereth and giueth to vs his Sonnes broken bodie and bloode shed to feede on they â—â—rne it into a sacrifice whereby man shoulde offer vp againe the Sonne to the Father and whereas the vse of it as Christ hath left it vnto vs leadeth vs to the onely sacrifice that Christ hath offered once for all in his owne person thereupon by faith to feede to our perfect and euerlasting saluation they in this their Masse leade vs to a propitiatorie sacrifice which they saye their priestes therein offer both for the quicke and dead as though quite contrarie to the doctrine of the Apostle to the Hebrewes Christ were such a Priest as needed successors as Aaron to offer often sacrifice for that the once offering of it himselfe should no more make the commers thereunto perfect then the sacrifices that the priefies after the order of Aaron
worship a wafer cake in shew and tast for verie Christ I am truely perswaded that there hath beene no one thing that hath more hardned the hearts eyther of Turkes or Iewes from becomming Christians then to heare and see as they doe these men thus to worship these wafer Chrisies of theirs who yet would be accounted the onely good Christians And it is certaine euen for this the heathen Philosooner and Phisition Auerois though he by trauelling and reading was acquainted with wonderfull many foolish fond kindes of Idolatrie liuing and florishing about the yeare of Christ noo iudged Christians to be the most foolish Idolaters in the world And without all doubt this hath beene averie God Manzim that is of power and riches to them For the people beeing perswaded that their priests can turne so quickly a poore wafer into Christ their Sauiour and that they can at their pleasure offer him vnto his Father for their soules health both whiles they are aliue and when they are dead they haue not cared what honour and riches they haue bestowed vpon them And therefore not vnfitlie may that of Daniell be as well verified of them euen for this as of them of whome he spoke most properlie and litterally That they honour the God Mauzim a God whom their Fathers knew not Dan. 11.38 And yet behold if we goe on but a little further more iniquitie and impietie in their Maste then all these For therein they haue quite contrarie to Christes institution by absurdlie taking it to be a sacrament of Christes life That they minister it but in one kinde and so of his bodie and bloode now togither in his manhood in heauē wheras he left it to be a sacrament of his death and so of the sundring therby of the one from the other as I haue shewed and by a new deuise of Concomitance that is of the going of his bodie blood now alwaies together robd the common people of the one half of the Sacrament denying thē the cup telling them that in taking the hoast they take al for his body blood are goe now togither But if it were thus why do they themselues take both or would they haue vs to think it needful for thē to eat him once vnder the form of bread after to drink him againe vnder the forme of wine that the one is inough for the people Euident it is in the words of the institution and by the practise therof in Pauls time 1. Cor. 11. that al were as expresly cōmanded to drinke of the cup as to eate of the other But Christ being the wisedome of the Father had not so much wisdom forecast as these men belike to foresee that his body blood go togither therfore for lacke of foresight he ordained a superfluous thing What an intollerable pride and presumption is this that dust and ashes and sinnefull man shall thus vndertake to alter to controule the ordinance of our Lord and sauiour Before the Councel of Constance which was in the yeare 1414. we finde not the administring of this Sacrament vnder both kindes generally and publiklie forbid the common communicant And in the councell of Basil about some 16. years after for all that it was permitted to the Boemians againe De consecratione dist 2. Gratian alleages a decree of Gelasius a Bishop of Rome a thousand yeares agoe to binde all men to receiue in both kinds saying either let him that receiueth receiue both or neither because the diuision of one misterie cannot be without sacriledge By this let them that hold their Popes solmne sentences for Oracles learne what manner of persons now their Popes and priestes in this point are become that now openly professe and practise the contrary hereunto That their priests take it alone And because they haue also in their Masses as they say so often consecration and yet none receiue but the priest himselfe for the most parte what shift will they make with that that we find in the same distinction Cap. Peracta alleadged there as the solemne sentence of Pope Calixt in the yeare 223. or thereaboute consecration being done saith he all that will not be shut from the Church should communicate for so the Apostles taught and the fashion of the Romane Church was Loe heere is both a Popes decree and that grounded both vpon the Apostles practise and the ancient Romane Churches also flatly against the practise of the Romane Church that now is And in verie deed no man can reade that which Saint Paule hath written of this matter 1. Cor. 11. but he must needs most plainly see that it was then the Apostles practise not onely to administer it in both kindes but also openly in the assemblies and to al that could and would trie and examine themselues and this man beeing Bishoppe of Rome was not ignorant what the fashion of the ancient Romane Church had bene Wherefore as in many other thinges so in this it appeares for all their great bragges and countenance of antiquitie that the Romane Church that now is Lastly their Cōsubstantiation is confuted is become an Apostata and runnagate from the ancient Apostolique Romane Church indeed Al these abhominations a number moe in their Masse which here without too to much tediousnesse I cannot stande vpon they are so manie arise grow from their speciall minion and paragon Transubstantration and therefore vntill her braines be dasht out there will neuer be any hoe of their foolishnesse and madnesse in this masse and Chaos of confusion of theirs They would beare the world in hand that she is most ancient and yet indeede and trueth how long soeuer before they were in conceiuing of her yet she was neuer growne ripe to the birth or borne before Innocent the thirdes time For neuer before the Laterane councell which was in his time and in the yeere 1211. as I haue said before was this decreed to be a Catholike trueth amongst themselues And this their owne greate Doctor and Bishop Tonstall in a booke of his written of this matter confesseth adding that perhaps it had beene better to haue less the manner how Christ becommeth present in this Sacrament as it was before that councell Now before this the Greeke Church was departed from the Church of Rome and therefore this was rather the decree of a priuate and particular conuenticle then of the vniuersall Church of God and therefore not onely wee but still vnto this day the Greekes reiect both this councell and decree though I know much tempering hath beene with them since to the contrary Scotus is not onelie of the same minde with Tonstall but if you reade him dist 11 quaest 3. vpon the 48. booke of Sentences you shall not only finde that he bringeth a number of obiections against this which he neuer answereth to anie purpose but also that in the end he setting downe his sole determination for it that yet
vnto vs and by his Spirit communicateth him vnto vs after a spirituall and misticall manner and that we by faith wrought and nourished in vs by this his Spirit and meanes feed vpon to our euerlasting saluation Touching which faith Conclusion of the commandement which thus I haue made as it were the hand mouth of our soule to take Christ offered vnto vs in the word Sacraments withall at the hand of God hsi spirit let it be remembred once againe that Christ here in my text calling for it to drinke him by saith not simply he that beleeueth in mee but with this adition as saith the Scripture Wherby let vs to conclude this point withall learne that in this case it is not inough to beleeue as we list nor as this man or that this company or that teach vs alwayes Yea that we neuer beleeue aright to this purpose vntill we beleeue in Christ as the canonicall Scriptures teach vs. All which as I haue before sufficiently shewed lay him still before vs to be beleeued in as our sole and onely meritorious cause of our saluation with whom we may neither ioyne any other person or thing And so stedfast also our confidence of saluation these teach vs ought to be in him that thereby we may say We haue peace with God through him and such accesse to Gods grace as that we stand therin and reioyce vnder hope which shall neuer be confounded Rom. 5. vers 1.2.3 c. In so much that hauing reckoned vp all thinges that are most likely to doe it yet with Paule all that haue this faith may boldly and triumphantly say That nothing shall seperate them from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus In any case therefore by the meanes that he hath appointed for that purpose which I haue now also laide before you let vs striue to attaine to this faith and to nourish it when we haue once got it For this is it that ioyneth Christ and vs togither and so fully possesseth vs of him and all the treasured graces and mercies of God prouided for mens saluation in him that therefore it bringeth vnto vs the peace that passeth all vnderstanding Phil. 4.7 and the ioy that none can euer take from vs. Iohn 16.22 We haue the word of God and that written outwardly sealed in the Sacramentes and thereby by his spirit also inwardly offering to seale sealing the same vnto our heartes consciences that God the Father in and by his sonne Christ Iesus by the mightie working of the holie Ghost both can and will saue vs. Whatsoeuer therefore papistes prate to the contrarie let vs most firmly and constantlie thus beleeue and not once dare call the trueth of God thus many waies confirmed vnto vs once into question But then let vs neuer for get that golden saying of Cyprian De duplicimartirio Non credit in Deum qui non in eo solo collocat totius suae salut is fiducia that is He beleeues not in God at all that placeth not the whole confidence of his saluation in him alone And the rather for that thus to doe our Creedes our Baptisme and all the scriptures teach vs. Let vs not therefore by the example or doctrine of Papistes be drawne from hence to put our confidence as they doe both in a number of persons and things that are not God For that were vndoubtedly howsoeuer they would perswade men to the contrary no better than to become plaine reuolters and apostares from the ancient found Catholicke faith which all these most plainely teach and binde vs vnto and in deede to fet vp vnto our selues a new Christ of our owne deuising with whom none of these euer acquainted vs. Wherefore as in these respectes I would wish that we tooke heed of the seauen of the popish faith as of the verie baine poyson of our soules so also beware we of their kinde of faith in the vse of the Sacrament of the body bloode of Christ For as you may perceiue by that which I haue said already of that matter the faith that they most call for in that busines is a beleeuing that Christes very body blood are really there vnder the formes of bread wine so be taken in by the bodily mouth of euery receiuer quite contrarie both to the true sence of the Scripturs in that behalf to the nature of Christ These things thus finished and concluded it remaineth now that we proceede in our text wherein we haue yet to consider of the promise therin made by Christ to all those and to none but to those that by right knowing him and beleeuing in him come vnto him and drinke of him This promise he vtters and expresses in these wordes as you haue hearde The promise out of his bellie shall flowe riuers of water of life whereunto if we referre these wordes as saith the Scripture as many interpreters both olde and newe doe then they teach vs to vnderstand this promise as the Scripture teacheth vs ellewhere and not otherwise And seeing Christ hath vttered the promise in such a metaphoricall phrase as hee hath it may verie well be that of very purpose he placed those wordes as he did not onely to teach vs as we haue heard alreadie that we come vnto him and drinke of him by sound knowledge and right faith as the Scriptures shew vs but also plainelie to instruct vs that in so doing we must looke to haue the wordes of this promise fulfilled vnto vs not in any grosse or literall sence but onelie in such spirituall manner and sorte as the Scriptures themselues in other places declare Heereby then to beginne withall Christ hath giuen vs this moste notable and profitable rule that it is a moste sounde way rightile to expounde Scriptures and so rightlie to vnderstande them to conferre Scripture with Scripture and to admit no sence of figuratiue and darke phrases and speaches in the same but that which may doth stand with other more plaine places which in Gods wisedom and prouidence euen of purpose elsewhere are set downe therein that they may be as a key to let vs into the right sence of the harde than which rule howsoeuer nowe a daies our aduersaries would perswade they haue founde a better namely to make the current practise of their Church which when they haue braued of Doctors and Councelles neuer so much is indeede onely the verie pleasure mutable fansie of their Popes the ancient Fathers haue esteemed and followed this as the best and saifest As it is euident in Augustine De doctrina Christiana Lib. 3.2.6 where he defineth that to be alwaies the sence of the harde place which is taught in plainer and that no sence is to be receiued to be the sence of any which cannot be proued so to be out of other places Of the same minde Hierome showes himselfe to haue beene in his 19. Homilie vpon Esay noting that
most plainely he confesseth that the principall ground of interpreting Christes wordes by transubstantiation is this that de sacramentis tenendum est sicat tenet sancta Ecclesia Romana of sacraments we must hold as the holy Romaine Church holdeth For the which axiome or rule in so weightie a matter in his next wordes he shewes that the best grounde he had was an Extrauagant de haereticis Cap. ad abolendam wherein some such things be determined by a sauorite of the same Which is as good ouidence as if we shoulde aske a theoues follow whether he be a theife if not worse Gabriell Biell another great Doctor of theirs writing vpon the Canon of the Masse confesseth that it is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible whether by transubstantiation or consubstantiation the bodie of Christ be there And Iohn Fisher a bishop and martyr of theirs as they count him writing against Luthers booke of the captiuitie of Babilon thinketh that euerye man vnderstandeth that the certaintie of that matter dependes not so much of the Gospell as it doth vpon the vse tradition and custome of the Church And more truely and easilye in show if it had pleased the Church might those wordes of Christ otherwise haue beene expounded saith Scotus in the forefaide place These things saide togither and conferred with that saying of Christ They worshippe me in vaine reaching for doctrines mens praecepts Math. 15.9 and with Peser 1. Epist ◠Cap. 14. Vers 18. where he telles all them to whome he wrote that generall Bpistle that Christ had redeemed them from the vaine conuersation which they had receiued by the traditions of the Fathers we shall soone see that it is noe rocke whereupon they builde this their transubstantiation but a very sand and a rotten foundation Yet because they are so confident in this matter as they are I will not leaue them thus Will you then know the first author that gaue them any inkling or grounde of inuention heere of Truely it was not Marke the Euangelist nor any such but yet vnlesse I be much deceiued one Marke markt them out the way the first of all others to finde it out This Marke that I speake of was a samous Magition and a damnable filthie heretique of the brood of Valentilians a verie ancient one I must needs confesse For I finde that he liued in the time of the Emperor Antarinus Pius which was but 150. yeares after Christ Of this wretch writeth Epiphanius in his 34. heresie prouing that which he saith out of Irenaus his 9. chapter against the heresies of the Valentinians where indeed it is so testified of him that when by his enchantment or inkling he had caused a cup of white wine to beare the colour of blood that thē he made his fellowe beleeue that by his inuocation ouer it it was so transubstantiated into blood that so by his meanes it might be thought that the grace that is super vniuersa that is oner all had instilled sanguinem suum in illud poculum his bloode unto that cup by which meanes when he had made them in admiration of him and so desirous to drinke there of he gaue them as it is there noted with greate solemnitie of wordes and so wonderfully bewitched many And the rather was I led and am thus to thinke because the same Irenaeus in the 8. chapter of the said booke secretly directed as I take it by the spirit of prophecie said that he was verè pracursor Antichristi that is truely Antichristes forerunner If therefore the former nouitie of their transubstantiation please them not let them hence fetch the petigree therof and so let Marcus be the first conceiuer of it and Innocentius he that bore and brought it forth Or if this be not to their mindes I will confesse that it may be that they learned it of the heathen who as they imagined with certaine words gestures could call downe their Hecate Iupiter and Elicius as oft as they list For neuer made or at this day maketh any heathen man more adoe then they about this businesse about the most idolatrous toy of superstition that euer they went about For the wordes must be pronounced with one breath and they vse such crossing such bending and bowing breathing and haling of the wordes to the elementes as they make themselues verie ridiculous to any that are wise that see them marke their doings No iugler nor sycophant vpon a stage are more full of fond and trifling actions and gestures then a Priest at Masse and all to effect this their transubstantiation Who can be perswaded that the Lord of heauen and earth that delighteth in no vanitie but altogether in sinceritie and simplicitie can take delight in this geare Whiles they haue beene so busie to establish the credite of this their deuise by fonde tales of diuerse miracles showed heere and there and I cannot tell where it had beene more needefull for them to haue laboured first to agree amongest themselues about the matter and to cleare the doubtes that they haue moued themselues by occasion thereof But this hitherto they haue founde so combersome a thing to doe that I dare be bolde to say by that which I haue red and coulde set downe thereof the varieties of their opinions and intricate doubtes heereupon moued by themselues and vnanswered and vnsatisfied as yet would require a longer time than I haue yet spent since I began to talke of this Sacrament to set them downe in Yea though they vse and like the word Transubstantiation neuer so well yet though they know that both by the words of the institution and by Saint Paules speaches had thereof 1. Cor. 10.11 and by the testimonies with one consent of all the ancient Fathers as we haue often shewed them Christ called vndoubtedly the bread which he brake and gaue his bodie broken and the wine in the cup his bloodshed they cannot yet be brought to tell vs or to agree amongst themselues what it is that should be or is heere transubstantiated and conuerted into his body Nay in trueth they dare not say that eyther bread or wine or any thing else are the thinges and yet we must yealde to a transubstantiation though no man yet could or would tell vs and stand to it when he hath done whereof it is Howsoeuer eyther they must say it is of some thing or not if of any thing then they know that therupon it will follow that of that thing whatsoeuer it be here Christs bodie is made which is absurd they themselues seeme to thinke to say nothing is turned or transubstantiated into it is quite to loose their cause In very deed they are inforced to see that if they should once by the demōstratiue particle This that Christ vsed vnderstand the bread wine that then it would most cleerly follow that there is a Trope or figure in the speech of Christ or that else they must confesse bread and wine