I haue tolde you before that we depende not onely vpon his example in doing but also and chiefely vpon his wordes in commaunding Which wordes are that not only twelue and no mo but as many as be christians and will be present at the action should be partakers of the mysteries And that the action should be celebrated by the Congregation that desire to be partakers thereof in the remembraunce of Christes death and passion and not otherwise The necessitie that you say draue Christ to minister to mee then to himselfe either fighteth holye agaynst your purpose or else one part of it agaynst another It was necessarie say you that by his déede he should institute the thing and teach his disciples what they should do afterwarde in the commemoration of his death How this can agrée with your purpose and with the rest that you write there let the discrete reader iudge And how well you doe when you receyue and minister this sacrament to your selfe alone Saint Hierome sayth Dominicae coena omnibus debet esse communis quia ille omnibus discipulis suis qui aderant aequaliter tradidit sacramenta Hierom. in 1. Corin. ca. 11. The Lordes supper ought to be common to all because he did equally deliuer the sacramentes to all his disciples that were present I thinke that all wise men will iudge that saint Hierome was not of your mind in this poynt for he sayth the Lordes supper ought to be common c. not after your fantasticall imagination but by actuall distribution of the sacrament Wee reade euen from the beginning of the Church that lay men and women did receiue it alone WATSON Diuision 40 And is there any religion that a lay man may do it but not a Priest Tertulian declareth the difficultie for a Christen wife to obserue hir religion without offence that hath an infidel to hir husband Tertulianus ad vxorem among other thinges sayth thus Non sciet maritus quid secreto ante omnem cibum gustes si sciuerit panem non illum credit esse qui dicitur Will not thy husband know what thou doest eate secretly before all other meates And if he doe knowe he beleueth it is breade and not him whome it is called Of this place we gather the maner of the Church in that time shortly after Christ that the people receiuing the Sacrament at the priestes hand in the Church did cary it home with them and kept it secretly and deuoutly at home with themselues and euery morning as their deuotion serued them did receyue a part of it by themselues and that secretly least the Infidels amonges whome they dwelt should get knowledge of our mysteries And thus of this place of Tertulian like as we maye learne that the Sacrament is not bread as the Infidels beleue if they chaunce to see it but Christ as it is called as the faithfull onely know to be so so we learne also that men and women were wont to receyue it alone without any other companie assembled with them which is sufficient for our purpose at this tyme. Saint Cyprian telleth of a woman in these wordes Cyprian de lapsis Cùm quaedam arcam suam in qua domini sāctum fuit manibus indignus tentasset aperire igne inde surgente deterrita est ne auderet attingere When a certaine woman went about to open hir chest wherein was the holy one of God with vnworthie handes she was afraid for the fire that rose from thence that she durst not touch it By this place appeareth the like maner of keeping it at home to receyue it alone at their pleasure And Eusebius in his storie telleth that the maner was to send the sacrament to Bishops straungers Eusebius histor eccles lib. 5. ca. 24. that chaunced to come thither for this ende to knowe whether they were Catholike and of their fayth or no which they knewe if they would receyue the sacrament which they had consecrate Lib 6. ca. 34. And also he telleth of one that lay in exstreme perill of death who had committed ydolatrie before and sent to the priest for the Sacrament whereby might bee reconciled to the Church before he dyed the priest was also sicke and could not come but sent it by the sicke mans seruaunt and so forth Here it is plaine that lay men receyued it alone without the priest And what great religion is there now newe found out that the priest may not likewise receyue it alone if the people be not worthie nor disposed at all tymes to communicate with him I leaue out a great number of places that make for the reseruation of the sacrament which all make for this purpose if I would spende any tyme herein to declare it Tertulian Cyprian and Eusebius CROWLEY must beare vs downe with strong hand that sole receyuing of the sacrament hath bene vsed of lay men and women euen from the beginning of the church and yet none of them wrote within .200 yeres of Christs assention In the time of persecution when christians looked euery houre to be apprehended and tormented for Christes cause they vsed to come togither when they might with any quietnesse A vse inforced by persecution and did pray togither and communicate And not knowing whether euer they should méete agayne in such sort they vsed to take some part of the holy misteries home with them reseruing the same in reuerend maner that they might by the receyuing therof renewe in their memorie the thing that the holye mysteries doe plainely preache vnto vs which is our lincking togither into the felowship of members of one body and our euerlasting lyfe through Christ This doing of theires as it doth declare a distrust in their owne strength so it is not to be mislyked but as it doth declare to great a trust in the outwarde mysteries of Christ so it can not be of the godly wise well lyked When the Israelites sawe their owne inhabilitie to stande before their enimies 1 Regum 4. they sent for the Arcke of God that by the presence thereof they might be encouraged and made able to ouercome them but when they had it amongst them they were ouerthrowne with a greater slaughter than before and the Arcke of God wherein they trusted caried away from them by their enimies De Lapsis Sermone 5. And as it appeareth by that which you cite out of Cyprian God was not pleased with that womans doing In token whereof fyre flashed out of hir Chest when she hauing denyed Christ before for feare of torments went about to strengthen hir fayth agayne by receyuing that which she had reserued for such purpose But what shall these two examples make for your purpose which is to proue that priests may say Masse in secret Oratories and open Churches Watsons examples proue not his purpose receyuing all themselues and yet obserue the institution of Christ which by your owne confession is
verie things themselues For he did not shape a sharpe aunswere to their cruelty neyther doth he by any meanes contende but he doth indeuor more then once to print in their mindes the quickning knowledge of this mysterie But after what maner he will giue his owne fleshe to be eaten he doth not declare bicause they could not vnderstande it But howe great good things they shall obtayne if they shall with faith eate it he doth oftentimes declare that by the desire of eternall lyfe they might be compelled to imbrace fayth by the meane wherof they might the more easily be taught For thus hath Esay sayde If ye will not beléeue ye shall not vnderstande It behoued therefore first to cast the rootes of fayth in the minde and afterwarde to séeke those things that man should séeke But those men did before they beléeued out of season seeke for those things For this cause therfore the Lorde did not declare how that thing might be done but he doth encourage them to séeke it by fayth In lyke maner vnto his Disciples which beléeued he gaue the péeces of bread saying take and eate this is my bodye The cup also he did in like maner beare about saying drinke ye all of this this is the Cup of my bloud which shall be shed for many for the remission of sinnes Thou séest that he opened not the maner of the mysterie to them that sought it without fayth but to such as beléeued he did expound it before they asked any question Nowe let the indifferent Reader iudge howe faythfully you haue handled the wordes of Cyrill and so he may haue the lesse cause to credite you in your large affirmation wherein you saye Watsons store is but small that all the good auncient Writers doe with one consent expound this place of Iohn as you doe Whereas when your store shall be sought there shall not one that lyued within .600 yeres after Christ be founde of your minde in thys point Wherfore we may well conclude that Christes fleshe is not in the sacrament in such sort as ye teach and that Christ ment not by those wordes that you cite out of Iohn to promise that he would giue his bodye in such sort to be eaten as ye haue affirmed that he did But that he ment to teache that he himselfe is that heauenly foode that the father giueth for the lyfe of the world The meaning of Christ in the 6. of Iohn and that he would giue them none other foode from heauen but onely that which at the time appointed he would yéelde vp for the lyfe of the worlde And that not to be eaten after a fleshly sort but after such a spirituall sort as the fathers that lyued afore he was incarnated had and did eate it Your exposition of saint Iohns wordes therefore is but a vayne and fayned glosse for that text WATSON Diuision 17 The time also is to be considered that he spake these wordes the night before hee suffered death at which time and the next day after he ended and fulfilled al figures saying on the crosse Consummatum est All figures and shadowes be ended and expired which was no time then to institute and begin new figures Is it lykely or probable that our sauiour Christ then entring into his Agony and beginning his passion accustoming commonly before to teach his Disciples in playne wordes without Parables or figuratiue speeches would then so lightly behaue himselfe as to delude his chosen and entirely beloued Disciples in calling those things his bodye that is giuen for them and his bloud that is shed for them which were neither his body nor his bloud but bare bread and wyne Or is there any religion in oure christen fayth in nicknaming thinges or calling them otherwise then they be If any man thinke himselfe able to aunswere that bycause Christ sayde he was a Vine he was a dore being neyther Vine nor dore that man seemeth to mee not substantially to way the wordes and speeches of scripture For let him consider thorowout all the scripture whersoeuer he shall finde that Christ spake any thing of himselfe by wordes of our common speeche for the God head and the properties of the Godhead be ineffable and cannot be expressed to our capacitie but by wordes and names of wordly and naturall things here among vs. He shall alwaies finde that Christ was a better and more singular thing then the worde did properly signifie that was attribute vnto him and to make this matter more playne by examples Where Christ sayde I am the waye he ment not that he was the way that leadeth to the Citie or to some other place but that he was a more excellent waye A way that leadeth to the father to heauen to euerlasting lyfe When he sayde he was the dore he ment not Iohn 10. that he was the dore of the sheepefold here in earth but a farre better dore the dore of the Church the spirituall sheepefold by the which dore whosoeuer entereth shall be saued Also calling himselfe a Vine Iohn 15. hee ment that he was the spirituall Vine whereof all christen men be braunches and better then such a Vine as groweth in the fieldes And lykewise by that he calleth himselfe the light we vnderstand that he was not the sensible light of this world but the heauenly light that neither by course is chaunged nor by shadowe is darkened So that it maye be obserued for a rule when Christ doth attribute the name of any sensible creature to himselfe euer the vnderstanding exceedeth and excelleth the worde in dignitie And if this be true in all kinde of teaching and doctrine shall we nowe in the highe mysteries and sacraments of God come from the Hall to the Kitchin from the better to the worst that where Christ sayth This is my bodye we shall vnderstande it is bread a worse thing then his body This is my bloud that is to say wine a worse thing then his bloud This be fond and false gloses neyther true nor lykely nor yet tolerable Wherfore leauing out a great many other circumstaunces that would serue verye well Math. 26. to set foorth the truth of this doctrine I shall conclude thus seing saint Mathewe sayth in plaine termes it is my body it is my bloud Saint Marke sayth it is my body Mar. 14. Luc. 22. 1. Cor. 11. Iohn 9. Saint Luke sayth it is my body Saint Paule sayth it is my bodye Saint Iohn sayth it is my fleshe shall we nowe fiftene hundreth yeare after them handle the matter so finely and waye the scripture so substantially that we shall affirme the contradictory to be the true sense saying this is not my body this is not my bloud but a figure and a signe of my bodye and bloud These euident scriptures moue me to continue still stedfast in that fayth I was borne in and not to be moued with vaine words and reasons without probabilitie
as is signified by the outward forme of the sacrament As in baptisme the water which is the outwarde forme signifieth the grace of saluation and remission of sinnes which grace is both giuen to the worthy receyuer and is also promised in scripture to be giuen by the mouth of Christ saying Qui crediderit baptizatus fuerit saluus erit Mar. 16. He that beleeueth and is baptised shall be saued Euen so the outward element of this sacrament which is bread wine doth signifie the grace of the vnitie of Christs misticall bodye that lyke as one bread is made of manye graynes one wine is pressed out of many Grapes so one misticall body of Christ is compact and vnited of the multitude of all Christen people as saint Cyprian sayth Nowe if our sacrament be bread and wine as they say then shal they finde the promise of this grace Cypri li. 1. Epist 6. or of some other in the Scriptures made to the receyuer of bread and wine And if there be no promise in all the scriptures made to the receyuing of bread and wine then be they no sacraments Iohn 6. But if they will looke in the sixt Chapiter of saint Iohn they shall finde this grace of the mysticall vnitie promised not to the receauing of breade and wine but to the worthy receauing of Christes body bloud where Christ sayeth he that eateth my fleshe and drinketh my bloud he abydeth in me and I in him and so is ioyned and incorporate into one misticall body with him Our sacrament therfore that hath the promise annexed vnto it is not bread and wine be they neuer so much appointed to signifie heauenly things as they say but the very body and bloud of oure Lorde Iesus Christ the bread that came from heauen CROWLEY It is sayde that there was once one so malicious that when he perceyued that asking for himselfe what he would he should receyue it but yet vpon such condition that another whome he hated should receyue double so much of the same he being desirous to doe the greatest mischiefe he could to the other asked that one of his owne eyes might be put out for then he knewe that the other should loose both his This mans malice was but little in comparison of yours M. Watson for to haue one of your neyghbors eyes put out you will not stick to put out both your owne eyes your selfe You tell vs that saint Austen sayth but you tell vs not where that euery sacrament of the newe testament is a visible forme of an inuisible grace And that it can not be a sacrament of the newe testament except it haue a promise of some such grace to be giuen to the worthye receyuer as is signified by the outwarde forme of the Sacrament c. Watson hath lost fiue of the Popes seauen sacraments By this you haue at one blowe striken of from the number of your holy fathers sacraments no moe but fiue For where wyll you finde in all the Scripture that eyther confirmation order matrimonie penaunce or extreme vnction are such sacraments as you speake of Or that they or anye of them haue anye such grace promised to the worthy receyuer of them Well Thus you haue dispossessed your selfe of fiue sacraments in hope to spoile vs of one But let vs sée whether we cānot kéepe our two sacraments still and so disappoint you of your purpose Baptisme you doe graunt vs for you say water is the visible or outwarde forme and doth signifie the grace of saluation and remission of sinnes Which grace is not only giuen to the worthy receyuer but also promised by Christes owne mouth when he sayth Qui crediderit c. He that will beléeue and be baptised shall be saued But fearing least you should marre all you leaue out the wordes that folowe Qui verò non crediderit condemnabitur But he that will not beléeue shall be damned Where is now the grace of saluation and forgiuenesse of sinnes that is promised to the outwarde baptising or washing in water Take awaye beliefe and there is no forgiuenesse of sinnes at all No not though you be baptised in water a thousand times Beliefe must goe before and baptising in water must folow after as a seale or confirmation of the fayth And whosoeuer doth beléeue will surely be baptised according to the institution of him in whome he doth beléeue The cause why children be baptised And such as doe beléeue that the promise of forgiuenesse of sinnes through Christ doth apperteyne to them and to their séede will not fayle to begge baptisme for their children also that when they shall come to the yéeres of discretion they may be put in remembraunce that they were dedicated to God and that therefore they ought to lead a godly lyfe as it becommeth such to doe And so many among these as shall be founde worthy that is to saye elected in Christ before the beginning of the worlde shall surely be saued as our Sauiour Christ hath promised But such among them as were not elected in Christ from the beginning shall not be saued although they doe beléeue after a sort as Iudas and Simon Magus did and be baptised too For onely Gods elect are effectually baptised and doe effectually beléeue Baptisme therefore is a visible or outwarde signe of an inuisible grace which grace is by the promise of Christ so annexed to the outward ministration of the visible element water that in Gods elect it neuer fayleth but is euer more effectuall Election in Christ maketh men worthy forgiuenesse of sinnes But in the other that are not elected it is effectuall in preaching lyuely the inuisible grace that is by Christ but it can not make them partakers of that grace bicause they be not worthy of it That is they be not elected in Christ which election alone is it that maketh men worthy Thus haue we one sacrament with your consent M. Watson nowe let vs sée whether we can kéepe another also maugre your beard But first let vs trie if there be not some contradiction in your wordes First you say that the outwarde element in this sacrament is bread and wine Cypri li. 1. Epist 6. and that it doth signifie the grace of the vnitie of Christs mysticall body c. And this you confirme by the testimonie of saint Cyprian And afterwarde you saye that our sacrament that hath the promise annexed vnto it is not bread and wine Contradiction in Watsons words but the very body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ the bread that came from heauen Nowe if yea and naye may be contrarie then is there contradiction in your wordes But to the matter There is no promise of grace made in the scripture to the worthy receyuer of bread and wine Wherefore it is manifest that bread and wine can be no sacrament The same reason might be made against that which you haue saide of
moue you to consider certaine things whereby the consent may appeare First the possession of the Church in this doctrine so many yeares in such quietnesse without contradiction that no reason or yet iniunction nor no new deuise that the Deuill or his dearlings can inuent to the contrary eyther can or ought to remoue vs out of possession except wee will wilfully loose our owne right and claime seing that we that liue nowe vniuersally throughout all Christendome haue receaued this fayth of our fathers and they of theirs Cyprian Ser. De Caena and so foorth euen to the Apostles and our sauiour Christ himselfe by whose mouth this doctrine as saint Cyprian sayth was first taught to the world that Christen men in the new lawe be commaunded to drinke bloud which the Iewes in the olde law were forbid to doe And so from him and his Apostles it hath bene by succession deduced and brought throughout all ages euen to this our time and beleued as Gods worde which can not be chaunged and not as mans worde subiect to alteration as probabilitie can perswade CROWLEY The first of those certayne things that you moue your Auditorie to consider whereby the consent of the Catholike Church may appeare is prescription of tyme. To this I haue partly aunswered in the aunswere to your former Sermon And the Byshop of Sarisburie hath fully aunswered in his aunswere to Doctor Harding And here I aunswere in fewe wordes That your possessiō hath bene forcible your fathers fayth in this point a false perswasion beside the worde of God and your clayme altogither vniust and therefore iustly withstanded by vs to whom the right belongeth as by good euidence of Gods holy worde and iudgement of sounde wryters we both haue and shall proue by Gods helpe WATSON Diuision 4 Secondly this consent in this matter may appeare by that the holy fathers and pastors of Christes Church haue written of it whome god hath placed and planted in hys Church for the buylding and vpholding of it in truth that his flock be not seduced and caried about with euery blast of newe doctrine by the craftines of men to the destruction of their soules Of this I haue spoken something already CROWLEY The indifferent reader may easily perceyue in the aunswere that I haue made to your former Sermon howe well those fathers and pastours that you speake of doe maintaine that which you doe teache Euen as those that fight against you with all the knowledge they haue And whatsoeuer you haue alreadie spoken therein is in the place where you haue spoken it alreadie fully aunswered WATSON Diuision 5. Thirdly we may knowe the consent of the Church by the determination of the generall counsels where the presidents of Gods Churches the rulers and learned priestes of Christendome assembled in the name of our Lorde Iesus Christ representing the holy Church of God Militaunt being led not with priuate affectiō but by Gods holy spirit to his glory instaunt in prayer feruent in deuotion purely diligently and freely haue intreated and determined those things that perteine to the faith of Christ and the purging of his Church to whose determination as to Gods ordinaunces we are bound to obey Wherein appeareth manifestly the consent of the Church How the determination of the general counsels CROWLEY doth declare the consent of the Church and how purely diligently and fréely they intreated and determined those things that you speak of in these generall counsels shall playnely appéere to the indifferent reader in the aunswere that shall be made to all such sentences as you shall cite out of any generall counsell in order as the same shall be cited The first generall counsell both for the calling WATSON Diuision 6. Concilium Nicenum and also for the cause was holden at Nice in Bithinia by .318 Byshops in the time of Constantinus Magnus twelue hundred and thirtie yeares ago where it was determined and published to the worlde in these wordes Exaltata mente fide consideremus situm esse in sancta illa mensa agnum dei qui tollit peccatum mundi quià sacerdotibus sacrificatur sine cruoris effusione nos verè preciosum illius corpus sanguinem sumentis credere haec esse resurectionis nostrae symbola c. Let vs lift vp our mindes vnderstanding and considering by fayth that the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world is situate and lyeth vpon that holy table which is offered of the pristes wythout the shedding of bloud and that wee receauing verily his precious body and bloud doe beleue them to be the pledges or causes of our resurrection This authority serueth me very well to declare the consent of the Church both in the matter of the reall presence also of the sacrifice which we haue in hand For the words be touched maruellously euery one seruing to expresse the truth and to auoyde all doubtes For first he biddeth vs lyft vp our mindes and consider by fayth wylling vs not to sticke onely to our senses thinking nothing else to be there but what we see outwardly teaching vs that the iudgement of this matter perteyneth not to our senses but to our fayth onely and as Eusebius Emesenus sayth Verè vnica perfecta hostia fide aestimanda non specie nec exterioris censenda est visu hominis Emesenus orat de corpore Christi sed interioris affectu This hoost and sacrifice is verily one and perfite to be esteemed by faith and not by forme and appearaunce to bee iudged not by the sight of the outward man but with the affection and perswasion of the inwarde man for to faith onely and not to senses apperteyneth the knowledge and iudgement of Gods mysteries and sacraments Then the counsell declareth what faith teacheth that is to say that the Lambe of God not material bread and wine nor the figure of the Lambe but the Lambe that taketh away the sinne of the worlde is placed lying vpon the holye table of the aultar which externall situation proueth a real presence of Christ to be there before we receaue it and not a phantasticall or an intellectuall receyuing of Christ by fayth in the tyme of the receauing onely as these men contende Further it teacheth that this Lambe of God is offred to almightie God by the Priestes which is a distinte offering from that Christ made vpon the crosse for there he offered himselfe by shedding his bloud which hee did but once and neuer shall doe it agayne any more Here is he offred of the priests not by shedding of bloud but as the counsaile saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not after a bloudy maner which is not a newe kylling of Christ but a solempne representation of his death as himselfe hath ordeyned After this it declareth the receauing of it saying that we verily receaue hys precious body bloud which worde verily is as much as that we call really and
and your Popishe fathers haue laboured by the bragge of fiftene hundred yeres to disceyue all the whole christen worlde For which you shall one day drinke of the cup of Gods wrath except ye repent before ye depart hense Your if and your but will not serue you then But as you say the errour is in your selfe which woulde harken to the witlesse sophisticall reasoning of a fewe Popishe men and so runne headlong to destroy your owne soules Forsaking and not contynuing in that fayth that was taught by the mouth of Christ sealed with his bloud and testified by the bloud of Martyrs and hath preuailed from the beginning and shall continue to the ende in the dispite of Antichrist and all his members and the whole power of hell As for that which remayneth concerning the thirde point that causeth you to contynue in your Popishe fayth that is the consent of the Catholike Church as you say which to your great griefe you could not now for shortnesse of time go thorow with shall be answered in the aunswere to your other Sermon if God wyll I hope in such sort that as many as be not wilfull blinde shall sée the subtiltie of your sophistrie and for euer after defie it and your Popishe Masse also which you boast to be so profitable to be frequented in the Church of Antichrist to maintaine your multituds of ydle belyes in cloysters and else where And I doubt not but whatsoeuer you or any other hath or shall shoote against the right vse of the Lordes supper which is nowe in reformed Churches frequented shall to the glorie of almightie God rebounde into your owne bosomes to the staye of all such as God in prouidence hath appointed to be saued by the preaching of his worde That they neuer encline to your Poperie but walke warily in the truth of the christian religion leading a christian lyfe that in the ende thereof they may with Christ triumph ouer Antichrist and all his Souldiours in endlesse felicitie Which he graunt to his elect and chosen children that in hys sonne Christ knewe them before they were Amen ¶ The second Sermon Obsecro vos fratres per misericordiam Dei vt exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam sanctam c. Rom. 12. AMONGES OTHER THINGES the last time I was admitted to speake in this place WATSON Diuision 1. I brought forth this sentence of saint Bernard written in a Sermon De epithania Pauperes sumus parum dare possumus c. Bernardus Ser. de Epiphania The English is this We be poore little may we giue yet for that little we may be reconciled if we will All that euer I am able to giue is this wretched bodye of mine if I giue that it is sufficient if not then I adde his body for that is mine and of mine owne for a little one is borne vnto vs and the sonne is giuen to vs O Lorde that lacketh in mee I supply in thee O most sweetest reconciliation Here I noted a great benefite of the oblation of Christes body to consiste in supplying that lacketh in the oblation of our bodyes that where as wee beyng exhorted of saint Paule to offer vp our bodies a sacrifice to almightie God and also doe vnderstande by other scriptures that it is oure dueties so to doe which maye bee done three wayes By voluntarie suffering the death for Christes fayth if case so require by painefull and penall workes as by abstinence and other corporall exercises for the castigation and mortifying of the outwarde man or else by the seruice of righteousnesse in that we vse the members and parts of our bodye as instruments of all vertue and godlynesse considering agayne howe there is great imperfection in all our workes and that the best of vs all commeth short of that marke which is prefixed of God to serue him with all oure heart wyth all our strength and that eyther in the worke it selfe or in the intent or in the cause or tyme or in some other degree and circumstaunce for this cause and consideration saint Bernard doth himselfe and moueth vs to ioyne the oblation of Christes body with oures wherewithall we are sure God is well pleased saying This is my sonne in whom I am well pleased Marke 7. by whose merites our oblation and other workes doe please God and not otherwise CROWLEY This place of Bernard is aunswered in the seuenth diuision of the former Sermon wherevnto I referre the indifferent reader And therefore I purposed to make one sermon of the sacrifice of Christ WATSON Diuision 2. not of that which he himselfe made vpon the crosse for oure redemption but of that which the Church his spouse maketh vpon the aultar which purpose being also before promised remaineth now to be fulfilled And entring the last time to speake of it I laid this foundation that is to say the veritie of the blessed Sacrament the bodye and bloud of our sauiour Christ to be verily and really present in it by the omnipotent power of almightie God the operation of his holy spirit assisting the due administration of the Priest and so to bee there not onely as our meat which God giueth vnto vs to nourish vs in spirituall lyfe but also as our sacrifice which we giue and offer vnto God to please him and purge vs from such thinges as may destroy or hinder that spirituall lyfe seing that Christ himselfe is the substaunce of the sacrifice of the new Testament as I haue partly shewed before and beside him wee haue none that is onely proper to vs Christen men This foundation of the reall presence I presupposed to haue bene beleued of vs all and yet I did not so rawly leaue it but declared vnto you such reasons as moued me to continue still in that fayth I was borne in which were the euident playne scriptures of God opened with the circumstances of the places in suche wise as the vaine cauillations of the sacramentaries can not delude them and also the effectes of this sacrament which be so great and so wonderfull that they can be ascribed to no other cause but onely to almightie God to such creatures as Gods sonne hath ioyned vnto him in vnitie of person as be the body and bloud of our sauiour Christ I alledged also the sayings of the holy fathers not in such number as I would haue done but choosed out a fewe which not onely declared the Authors fayth but conteyned a necessarie argument to proue our common fayth in this matter For aunswere to your handling of those matters that you speake of here CROWLEY I referre the reader to the aunswere that I haue made to that Sermon Concerning the third point WATSON Diuision 3. which is the consent of the catholike Church neyther the time then suffred to speake as behoued nor yet suffereth nowe if I should performe my promise as I intende God wylllng And for that cause I shall but