before he departed from them And although after his resurrection hee appeared to them at sundrie times by the space of fourtie dayes eating and drinking with them to shewe the certeintie of his resurrection speaking of the kingdome of God yet is there no worde of celebrating of the sacrament with them And it is altogether vnlikely that he would giue the sacrament the comfort of his absence at his first returne againe to them and that he woulde celebrate the same to two disciples and not to the whole number of his Apostles who had as great neede to be confirmed in faith as those two Finally if euer he had repeated the vse of the sacrament it is moste probable he woulde haue done it immediatly before his assention but then he did not which S. Luke who sheweth that storie exactly would not haue omitted therefore there is no likelihood that he did it before But admitt that he did then minister the communion doth it followe because bread is onely named therefore the cuppe was not giuen But Maister Heskins woulde haue it proued that the figure Synechdoche is here vsed that is part named for the whole For profe the institution of Christe and practise of the church for more then a thousand yeres after Christ may serue a reasonable man. Also the vsuall phrase of the scripture which by bread meaneth whatsoeuer is ioyned with it to be receiued as Math. 15. Mark. 7. The disciples are accused for eating bread with vnwashed handes c. shall wee here exclude meat and drinke because bread is onely named Also Marke the 3. they had no leysure to eat breade Luke 14. Christe came into the house of the Pharizee to eate bread And Iohn 6. You seeke mee not because you haue seene the signes but because you haue eaten of the breade and are satisfied And 2. Cor. 9. He that giueth seede to the sower shall minister bread for foode And 2. Thess. 3. wee haue not eaten our breade freely And in the same Chapter the disordered persons are exhorted to labour and eat their owne bread In all these places and a great number more breade onely is named in which it were mere madnesse to affirme that only bread is spoken of not meat or drink So the whole supper of Christ cōsisting of bread wine for the outwarde or earthly parte vnder the name of breade the cuppe also is comprehended Wherefore the practise of Christ is not contrarie to his institution as M. Heskins most arrogantly wickedly and vnlearnedly affirmeth The second reason he vseth is that the institution perteineth onely to priestes because Christ did then minister it onely to priests But first that is not proued nor like to be true for seeing our Sauiour Christe did minister the communion in the house of one of his disciples with whom he did eat the passeouer it is not like that he excluded him from the sacrament of the new testament with whome he was partaker of the sacrament of the olde testament For proofe that both he and his familie were partakers of the Passouer with him it is manifest that it was not possible for thirteene persons to eate vp a whole sheepe and other meat also at one meale For it was a sheepe of a yeare olde although it were a verie small one and must be eaten with the head feete the purtenaunce and nothing reserued vnto the morrowe But graunt that onely the Apostles were partakers of the first institution by the same reason that the one part of the sacrament perteined to them only the other parte also might be left to them onely and so the people should haue neither of both kindes because onely priestes had both kindes deliuered vnto them Further he sayeth the doctrine of Saint Paule is not sufficient to proue that the sacrament ought to bee ministred in both kindes for Saint Paule doth but onely set foorth the institution without an exclusiue excluding all other maners but this O shamelesse dogge is not the institution of Christe an exclusiue of all other manners take example of baptisme is it lawfull to baptise with any other lycour then water into any other name then the name of the Father the Sonne ▪ and the holy Ghost yea it is sayed in the Actes that the Apostles baptised in the name of Iesus Christe and yet no man will saye that they brake the institution of Christe and baptised onely in the name of Christe excluding the father and the holy ghoste Euen so it is sayde they continued in breaking of breade shall wee not vnderstande this after the institution as well as the other Againe if the institution of Christ had not heene an exclusiue of all other manners howe doth the Apostle by the institution of Christ reproue another manner brought in by the Corinthians Finally when the holy Ghost by Saint Paule commaundeth euery Christian man and woman to trye themselues and so not onely to eate of that breade but also to drinke of that cupp what Lucifer is that which wil oppose him selfe against the flatt commaundement of the holie ghost 1. Cor. 11. and saye the lay people shall not drinke of that cuppe or may be without the cupp well ynough But the doctrine of the Catholike church as he sayeth is that the whole sacrament is in either of both kindes the bloude is in the bodie and the bodie in the bloud But this is neither the doctrine of Christ nor the doctrine of the church of christ For Christ to shewe that he is a perfect nourishment vnto vs which of necessitie consisteth of meate and drinke and neither of both can be lacking for the nourishment of our bodies hath instituted his sacrament both in bread and drinke to testifie vnto vs that wee are perfectly fedd in him and therefore hath deuided the sacrament into two signes the one to signifie his bodie as meate the other to represent his bloud as drinke and therefore confounded be he the confoundeth these things which his heauenly wisedome hath thus mercifully distinguished Iustinus also a moste auncient writer of the church affirmeth that the sacrament consisteth of a drye and moyst nourishment in Dialog Cum. Tryphone aduersus Iudęos And euen this verie diuision of the sacrament sufficiently confuteth both transubstantiation the carnal presence For if he had purposed to giue vs his naturall bodie in the forme of bread or otherwise in the bread he would not haue deuided his bloud from his bodie But euen hereby he taught vs that hee spake of an heauenly mysticall and spirituall manner of eating his bodie and drinking his bloud by faith and not of a swallowing or gulping in of the same at our mouth and our throte But the cuppe saith Maister Heskins is the bodie of Christ and howe is it consecrated by these words This is my bloud Why where is nowe the plaine wordes of scripture where bloud is taken for a whole bodie But seeing Christ sayth further This is my
his deuorse from his first vnlawfull mariage gaue him occasion to enquire and finde out what weake foundation the vsurped power of the See of Rome was buylded vppon 76 King Henrie departed not out of the societie of the churche of Rome onely for the vices of the men thereof but for their false and Antichristian heresies which they obstinately mainteined and ioyned him selfe to the true auncient and vniuersall Church of Christe when hee departed out of that false newe sett vp schismaticall and particuler Synagogue of Rome as Saint Augustine went from the Manichees to the Catholicke church And as King Henrie the eyght knewe whence hee went so knewe hee also whither he went euen from Rome with seuen hilles to Ierusalem which is aboue and is the mother of vs all 77 Hee that goeth out of an hereticall church as King Henrie did must goe to the Catholike church of Christe as hee did without making any newe church or being without a church I knowe not the age of Maister Sander but if hee bee not much aboue fourtie yeares olde hee was borne and baptized as manye other Papistes were in that which hee calleth a newe church or no church which howe hee will aunswere let him and them aduise which holde it necessarie that a man must tarrie in that church in which hee is baptized 78 King Henrie the eight was not without a churche but in the church of Englande a member of the Catholike church of Christe neither did hee call him the supreme head of the church of Englande before that title was giuen him by the Popish Clergie in their submission after they were cast in the premunire Edw. Hall. 79 That hee receiued not fully the true doctrine of Christ as he banished the false vsurped power of the Pope is to bee imputed to the trayterous practises of his dissembling Clergie which although they durste not withstande him in mainteining the Popes authoritie yet they laboured all that they coulde to reteine the Popes doctrine in as many poyntes as they might hereof came the lawe of the sixe articles which mainteined the sacrifice of the Masse transubstantiation communion in one kynde and such other heresies Neuerthelesse the authoritie of Antichrist much Idolatrie superstition and false doctrine was abolished Iustification by faith in Christe was preached the scripture was read in the vulgar tongue which was a beginning of a reformation and returning vnto the true church of Christe and not a setting vp of a newe churche Except Maister Sander will saye that those Kinges of Iuda which refourmed some parte of religion and yet left the hill altares other abuses did set vp a newe church because they made not a perfect reformation Finally where he sayth that King Henrie adioyned himselfe to no companie of faithfull men in earth which had from Christes time liued after that profession of faith which he allowed proueth not that hee set vp a newe church For he ioyned to the Catholike church in so many pointes of true doctrine as hee acknowledged from which the Popish church was departed although he was not rightly instructed in all 80 The church of Englande in King Henries time was a true church although all the doctrine which was then mainteined by publique authoritie through the subtile practises of popish hypocrites was not true And the church of England at this daye is the same that it was then but nowe by publike authoritie embraceing all true doctrine which by the true members of the church in King Henries dayes was mainteined and withstoode by hypocrites or other not yet rightly instructed 81 The church vnto which King Henrie went and brought the realme when he departed from Rome was the same church which began at Ierusalem and so increased into all nations and continueth in the world for euer though not among all nations 82 King Henry went out of the Antichristian church of Rome into the Catholike church of Christe embracing some part of the doctrine therof therefore hee needed no reconciliation to the Romish church but a more perfect information of the church of Christ. 83 In King Edwardes time the reformation began and hindred in his fathers time was perfected and accomplished for all pointes of Christian doctrine neither was there any reconciliation vsed to the churche of Rome but the Church of Englande by publike authoritie perfectly vnyted to the Catholike Churche of Christe ioyning in profession of faith with the best refourmed Christian churches in the worlde 84 The abolishing of forrein power hindred not the ioyning in faith and doctrine with all the Churches of God that were without the realme of England The propitiatorie sacrifices of the Masse was in King Edwardes time abolished by publique authoritie out of the Church of England as it was in King Henries time abhorred of all true members of the Church that were then rightly instructed as much as the supremacie of the Pope 85 The power of being the sonnes of God the power of preaching and forgiuing of sinnes in the Church of Christe is no forreigne power neither was any such power euer excluded but the false and vsurped tyrannie of Antichrist of Rome 86 We beleeue and professe a Catholique or vniuersall Church of Christe whereof we are members and therefore we detest the hereticall schismaticall and particular Church of Rome 87 The Church of England vnder King Edward did professe her selfe to be a member of the most auncient Catholike and Apostolique Church of Christe which is the piller of trueth to bee iudged by the worde of GOD which is the trueth it selfe Iohn 17. being not so ignoraunt but that she could distinguish the worde of GOD from the Church of GOD as the lawe of GOD from the houshold of GOD which is gouerned by that lawe And not as Maister Sanders similitude is as the statutes of England differ from the men of England which make them but the Church maketh not the worde of God but contrariwise the word of God maketh the Church 88 It is not necessarie to shewe a companie of men in a peculiar place as Geneua or any such like for them that will ioyne them selues with the Catholike Church of all the world although it were easie to name diuers companies of men in seuerall places which continued in the true Church out of the Church of Rome both in Fraunce and Italie beside Bohemia which long before was returned out of the Popish Church into the Church of Christ and all the East Churches which neuer ioyned with the Church of Rome 89 The Churches of Zurich and Saxonie be members of the Catholique Church of Christe which is fifteene hundreth yeares olde and vpward although the same Churches were gathered and returned in those places within these three score yeares 90 There needed no embassages to goe to and fro to the Churches of God beyond the seas for reconciliation bicause there was no debate betweene the Church of England and them Although for conference and aduise
before bread Dunce holdeth that if there were no transubstantiation graunted yet the presence might well stande and the adoration to as Maister Rastel saith but he taketh parte with Thomas But if the reason of Thomas be good for the presence of the bread because it is a creature why not also for the accidents of bread which are creatures also â–ª To the saying of Augustine In sermo ad Infantes That whiche you see on the table is breade Maister Rastel sayeth it is a reason of Tinkers Taylers and Coblers O learned Clearke and not of learned Schollers to say it is bread because it is called bread But learned Maister Rastel Saint Augustine doeth not say it is called breade but he saith it is bread and moreouer he maketh their senses Iudges thereof Quid-etiam oculi vestri renunciant Which also your eyes do tell you And that your learned penne hath set downe out of Prosper which is not to be found in Augustines workes yet maketh it nothing against the remayning of bread but only saith that vnder the visible kindes of breade and wine we honour the bodie and bloud of Christ. To the saying of Gelasius that the substance and nature of bread and wine doth not ceasse to be he aunswereth that Gelasius doth expound him selfe straight after where he saith But they remaine in the propertie of their nature as though nothing remained but whitensse thicknesse c. O impudent falsifier Is substance and properties of nature all one Againe I aske what are they that remaine in their propertie of nature but the breade and wine Finally the very argument whiche he vseth against Eutiches most plainely confuteth Rastell for a moste shamefull and shamelesse peruerter of this Doctours meaning for he concludeth that as the substance of bread wine remaine in the sacrament so the bodie in Christ after the assumption of the Diuine nature The like beastly racking he vseth of the wordes of Theodoret which vseth the same argument against the Eutichians But in the end he saith it must not be considered what one or two haue saide but what the whole consent of the Church is and if it were graunted that Gelasius and Theodoret denied transubstantiation yet they graunting the carnall presence it were a small matter and nothing at all against the Catholikes which hold of the generall councell of Laterane What say you learned M. Rastel is it not to be regarded nor maketh it any thing against you what Gelasius the Bishop of Rome hath written whiche you holde can not erre But where he sayeth that they bothe graunt the carnall presence I must sende the Reader to mine aunswere vnto the 60. Chapter of the 3. booke of Hesk. Parlea for Gelasius and to the 52. and 56. chapters of the same booke for Theodoret How vnlearnedly he affirmeth Cyprians errour of rebaptization to be no heresie because the church had not determined the contrarye I passe ouer when on the one side the bishoppe of Rome was against it on the other side a whole councell in Affrica was for it SECTIO 31. in the 98. leafe The bishop shewed out of the schoole men that if a man worship the accidents of breade Idolatrie may bee done to the sacrament M. Rastell saith not to the sacrament but to the accidents But do not you papists call the accidents the sacrament else what difference make you betweene sacramentum rem sacramenti in S. Augustine the sacrament and the thing of the sacrament Againe he saith the fault were not in the institution of Christ but in the silence of the priest and simplicitie of the people that were no better taught As though Christ did euer institute the sacrament to be worshipped after any maner of Latriâ— or Doulia of which he reasoneth brutishly with putting such cases if a man shoulde haue worshipped the only face of Christ as God which no man would euer haue done or his garment which had bene idolatry whosoeuer had done it SECTIO 32. From the 99. leafe to the 103. leafe Whereas the bishop lamenteth the miserable case of the people which are brought into idolatrie â–ª with these blinde distinctions M. Rast. deriding his needlesse and folish pitie lamenteth the state of the worlde when such things as are concluded in schooles should be opened in pulpets as though there were one doctrine of God for the schooles and another for the pulpets Yet he thinketh it not meete to teache the distinctions of the three persons in trinitie but onely to beleeue as the Churche doth beleeued as well in the trinitie as in al other articles and namely in this of the sacrament Which position of his if it may stand there needeth none other creed to be preached but onely this short curtall creed beleeue as the church beleeueth you cannot do amisse But in time of popishe tyrannye you woulde not haue bin satisfied if a man examined of his faith in the sacrament had answered I beleue as the church teacheth or I beleeue it to be the body of Christ as Christ said it and meant it to be his body but then you must grope him in fleshe blood and bones as he was borne of the virgine Mary c. Whether he beleeue the substance of breade to remaine after the wordes of consecration spoken by the priest c. Well howsoeuer it be all learning resteth in the brest of reuerende M. Rast. M of art student in diuinity who can with one breath condemne all the pedlers and pelting craftesmens arguments deuised in alehouses or shops and after recited in the protestants schooles as this Christ is ascended in body in to heauen and there sitteth vntill the end of the world therefore he is absent from the earth in bodie and consequently is not in the sacrament an vnlearned argument saith M. Ra. as this can a priest make God but learned sir who taught the people to call that which the priest maketh their maker or what or which of all the reuerend rabbins of poperie did reprooue the people for so speaking Againe can one bodie be in more places then one at one time An argumente of ignoraunte people O vnlearned Augustine whiche hath defined that the bodie of Christ can be but in one place at one time in Ioan. cap. 7. Tr. 30. If a mouse eat the hosâ— doth hee ease Christes bodie A peltinge craftesmans argument What M. Rast. are you so arrogant in opinion of your owne learning that you will condemne all the schoolemen for pedlers and tynkers that haue moued argued decided this question and a hundreth like vnto it came this question from protestants or from your owne popish schooles not from the schooles onely but euen the instructions that haue bene written for euery simple curate as Manupulus curatorum c. But if a lerned man expert in liberall sciences saith M. Rast. a great Master of liberal arts should vse this argument of the necessitie of Christs body
gone out of the parleament house where matters are grauely intreated of and hath betaken him selfe to the wilde forest where hee may disporte himselfe in his games with Robin hoode and his merie mates And verilie if he had not tolde vs him selfe of his lustie hunting wee might well haue thought he had not beene at home but wandering in the woodes so wilde when in his exhortation vnto faith in the sacrament hee will persuade vs that none can vnderstande the scriptures except they haue founde faith in the veritie of the Sacramente Which happeneth to all those that wil not be with Christ in the breaking of the breade as the two disciples were that went to Emans to whome Christe was a straunger vntill he came to the breaking of the breade But leaste this vaine allegorie shoulde seeme to bee founde out only in M. Heskins chase hee trauelleth to finde it in S. Augustin Theophylact but al in vaine For first to giue vs a tast what synceritie and trueth he will vse in the rest of this booke the verie first sentence he alleadgeth out of any Doctor is corruptly and vntruly rehearsed For thus hee maketh Augustine to speake in his treatise De consensu Euangelistarum not naming in what booke or Chapter whereas that which he writeth of this matter is Lib. 3. Cap. 25. Non enim incongruenter accipimus hoc impedimentum in oculis eorum a Satana fuisse ne agnosceretur Iesus sed tantùm a Christo propter eorum fidem ambiguam facta est permissio vsque ad sacramentum panis vt vnitate corporis eius participata remoueri intelligatur impedimentum inimici vt Christus possit agnosci We doe not take it incongruently that this impediment in their eies was of Sathā that Iesus shold not be knowen but only it was permitted of Christ for their doubtfull faithes sake vntill they came to the sacrament of bread that the vnitie of Christs body being participated it might be perceiued that the impediment of the enimie was remoued that Christ might be knowen In this place beside that he turneth autem into enim and leaueth out factum after fuisse he addeth of his owne propter eorum fidem ambiguam for their doubtfull faiths sake Which words are not Augustins Wherby it appeareth that hee redde not this place out of Augustine himselfe but followed some other mans collection as he doth almost euerie where But Augustine in that place comparing the wordes of Marke and Luke together sheweth that there was no alteration in the shape of Christes bodie but onely that the two disciples eyes were helde that they could not knowe him but in breaking of the bread which signified the vnity of the Church For this he writeth Neque quisquam se Christum agnouisse arbitretur si eius corporis particeps non est id est ecclesię cuius vnitatem in sacramento panis commendat Apostolus dicens vnus pà nis vnum corpus multi sumus vt cum eis benedictum panem porrigeret apperirentur oculi eorum agnoscerent cum Neither let any man thinke that he hath knowen Christ if he bee not partaker of his body that is of the Church whose vnitie the Apostle cōmendeth in the sacrament of the bread saying One bread we being many are one bodie that when he reached vnto them the blessed bread their eyes were opened and they knew him This is Augustines collection of this matter nothing agreable with M. Heskins allegorie of the soūd faith in the veritie of the sacrament but much against it teaching the true participation of the body of Christ in the sacrament which is the mystical coniunction of him vnto his Church Moreouer euen in the place by him alledged I meruell M. Heskins cannot see that Augustine calleth it the sacramēt of bread which agreeth not with his transsubstantiation and if he think the participation of the vnitie of Christes bodie doth helpe him Augustine in the same place sheweth the contrarie vnderstanding the bodie of Christ to be his Church as is before shewed But what saith Theophylact of the same Another thing also is here insumated namely that that their eyes which take this blessed bread are opened that they may knowe him For the fleshe of our Lorde hath a great and vnspeakable strength What is there here in these authorities either for M. Heskins bil of the reall presence or for his fond allegorie It pleaseth him excedingly that Theophylact saith the flesh of Christ is of vnspeakeable power which we doe most willingly admitte euen in receiuing of the sacrament it worketh mightily but hee will not see at all that Theophylact with Augustine calleth the sacrament blessed bread by which they both do shew that the substance of bread remaineth although it be blessed consecrated vnto an other vse then for bodily food The second Cha. expoundeth the sixt of S. Ioh according to the letter The summe of this literal exposition is this that three sundry breades are mentioned by Christe in this sixte of Iohn that is the bread Manna the bread the sonne of God and the bread the flesh of Christ and that these three breads are distincted both in nature and in time in whiche they were giuen For Manna was a corporall food giuen of old time in the wildernes The second bread the godhead of Christ being an eternall and spirituall substance Christ saith his father doth giue in the present tence and that he is the bread of life and requireth beleefe in him which is proper to God onely The third breade is the fleshe of Christ which he will giue for the life of the world speaking in the future tence and is meant of the sacrament And this he dare auouch to be the natiue true vnderstanding of this scripture But sauing his authoritie there are but two breades spoken of in this Chapter namely Manna and the bread of life which is not the diuinitie of Christ separated from his flesh nor his flesh separated or distincted from his godhead but euen his quickening spiritual flesh which being vnited to his eternal spirit was by the same giuen for the life of the world not in the sacrament but in the sacrifice of his bodie bloud on the crosse and is daily sealed and testified vnto vs by the sacrament of his bodie and bloud ministred according to his holie institutiō And this I dare auouch to be the true natiue sense of this scripture both by the plain circumstances of the same and by the iudgement of the best approued ancient writers And first to take away as wel the vain supposed distinction of time in which the two later breads are said to be giuen as also to proue that they are but one bread our sauior Christ him selfe after he hath promised to giue the bread which is his flesh for the life of the world and declared what fruite commeth to them that eate his fleshe and drinke his bloude c. in
in one very substantiall flesh therefore the manner of participation of his flesh in the sacrament is also spirituall and not carnall Maister Heskins reiecteth this participation to bee the fruition of the benefites of his body and bloud crucified bycause that saith hee is common to all the sacraments and not proper to this But that the substaunce of all sacramentes is one and the difference is in the manner of dispensation of them wee haue shewed sufficiently in the first booke which were tedious nowe to repeate Wherefore we must now set downe what Chrysostome speaketh of the bloud of Christe This bloud maketh that the kinges image doth flourish in vs This bloud doth neuer suffer the beautie and nobilitie of the soule which it doth alwayes water and nourish to fade or waxe faint For bloud is not made of meate soudenly but first it is a certaine other thing But this bloud at the first doth water the soule and indue it with a certaine great strength This mysticall bloud driueth diuelles farre off and allureth Angels and the Lorde of Angels vnto vs For when the diuelles see the Lordes bloud in vs they are turned to flight but the Angels runne foorth vnto vs This bloud being shed did wash the whole world whereof Paule to the Hebrues doth make a long proces This bloud did purge the secrete places and the most holy place of all If then the figure of it had so great power in the temple of the Hebrues and in Aegypt beeing sprinkled vpon the vpper postes of the doores much more the veritie This bloud did signifie the golden altar Without this bloud the chiefe priest durst not goe into the inward secret places This bloud made the priestes This bloud in the figure purged sinnes in which if it had so great force if death so feared the shadowe how much I pray thee will it feare the truth it selfe This bloud is the health of our soules with this bloud our soule is washed with it she is decked with it she is kindled This bloud maketh our minde cleerer then the fire more shining then golde The effusion of this bloud made heauen open Truely the mysteries of the Church are woonderfull the holy treasure house is woonderfull From Paradise a spring did runne from thence sensible waters did flowe from this table commeth out a spring which powreth foorth spirituall flouds Chrysostome in these wordes doth extoll the excellencie of the bloud of Christe shed vpon the crosse the mysterie whereof is celebrated and giuen to vs in the sacrament and therefore hee saith it is Mysticus sanguis mysticall bloud which wee receiue in the sacrament which word Mysticall M. Heskins a common falsarie hath left out in his translation to deceiue the vnlearned reader Hee laboureth much to proue that Chrysostome spake in this long sentence of that sacrament which is needlesse for as he spake of the sacrament so spake he of the passion of Christe and of the sacrifices and ceremonies of the olde lawe and all vnder one name of bloud By which it is more then manifest that hee vseth the name of bloud figuratiuely and ambiguously therefore nothing can bee gathered thereout to fortifie M. Heskins bill of the naturall bloud of Christ to be in the challice The honourable titles of the sacrament proue no transubstantiation nor carnal presence in this sacramēt more then in the other The same Chrysostome vpon Cap. 9. ad Heb. Hom. 16. sheweth howe the bloud of Christ that purged the old sacrifices is the same which is giuen vs in the sacrament of the new testament Non enim corporalis erat mundatio sed spiritualis sanguis spiritualis Quomodo hoc Noune ex corpore manauis Ex corpore quidem sed a spiritu sancto Hoc vos sanguine non Moses sed Christus aspersit per verbum quod dictum est Hic est sanguis noui testamenti in remissionem peccarorum For that was no corporall cleansing but spirituall and it was spirituall bloud Howe so Did it not flowe out of his body It did in deede flowe out of his body but from the holy spirit Not Moses but Christe did sprinkle you with this bloud by that worde which was spoken This is the bloud of the newe testament for the remission of sinnes Thus let Chrysostome expound him selfe touching the mysticall or spirituall bloud of Christe which both was offered in the old sacrifices and nowe feedeth vs in the sacrament if it were in the olde sacrifices naturally present then is it so nowe if the vertue onely was effectuall so is it also to vs and no neede of transubstantiation or carnall presence The sixt Chapter proceedeth in the opening of the vnderstāding of the same text of S. Iohn by Beda and Cyrillus Although Beda our countriman were far out of the compasse of 600. yeres and so vnfitly matched with Cyrillus a Lord of the higher house yet speaketh he nothing for the corporal presence of Christes body in the sacrament but directly against it His words vpon this text of Saint Iohn are these Hunc panem Dominus dedit c. This bread our Lord gaue when he deliuered the ministerie of his body and bloud vnto his disciples when he offered him selfe to his father on the altar of the crosse And where he saith for the life of the world we may not vnderstand it for the elementes but for men that are signified by the name of the worlde In these wordes Beda according to the custome of the olde writers and the doctrine of the Church of Englande in his time and long after calleth the sacrament the mysterie of the body bloud of Christ and not otherwise Yet M. Heskins pythely doth gather that as he calleth the flesh of Christ on the crosse breade and yet it is verie flesh so the fleshe of Christ in the sacrament is called bread yet it is verie flesh Alas this is such a poore begginge of that in question videlicet that the fleshe of Christ is in the sacrament according to his grosse meaning that I am ashamed to heare it Why might he not rather reason thus the fleshe of Christe on the crosse is called bread and yet it is not naturally bread euen so the bread of the sacrament is called flesh yet it is not naturall fleshe It is plaine that breade in that texte of Iohn is taken figuratiuely for spirituall foode and so the flesh and bloud of Christ on the crosse is our food and the same is communicated to our faith in the sacrament Cyrillus in 6. Ioan. by M. Heskins alledged speaketh neuer a worde either of the sacrament or of Christes corporall presence therein Antiquus ille panis c. The old bread was onely a figure an image and a shadowe neither did it giue to the corruptible bodie any thing but a corruptible nutriment for a little time But I am that liuing and quickening breade for euer And the breade which I will giue
And of Caluine yet not as Heskins like a lewde lyer slaundereth him to say This is the verie substance of my bodie but it is not my bodily substance but agreeing in effect with all the rest that the verie bodie of Christ is receiued but not after a carnall or bodily manner but after a spirituall vnspeakable manner As for the fiue sectes numbred among the Lutherans which dissent from vs in this point we make none accompt of them Thus where M. Hesk hath gathered as he reckoneth sixteene seueral sectes foure of them being condemned of vs for hereticall with the authors of them fiue agreeing with the papistes in the carnall presence and Luthers owne secte if he dissent from them as Heskins maketh him to doe the sixt tenne are of vs generally refused The other sixe that remaine in Maister Heskins number are falsely forged to disagree when they holde all one thing in effect although they expresse the same thing in diuerse formes of wordes as it is not possible for diuerse interpreters though they agree in sense and interpretation to iump all in one forme of words for then all commentaries should be one But as God giueth his giftes diuersely some expound the scriptures briefely some more at large some more plainly some more obscurely so all these and fiue hundred more God be thanked learned men either in writing or in preaching haue shewed the vnderstanding of Christes wordes hardly fiue of them agreeing in all termes and phrases yet all moste sweetely consenting in one sense and meaning which consent and agreement is more notable when it is vttered in so many diuerse formes of wordes And yet to take away all cauels and flaunders all the churches for the moste parte in Fraunce Scotland Sauoy Heluetia Germanie Hungarie Piemont Polonia c. beside the persecuted Churches of Italians Spanyards and others haue subscribed to one forme of confession concerning not onely the sacrament but all other principall poyntes of religion which wee do likewise receiue in this Church of England And if disagreing of men among themselues were a matter of such importance it were no harde thing to shewe the battels of the schoole doctours among the Papists not onely about other matters but euen about the manner of the presence of Christes bodie in the sacrament transsubstantiation If you say all these whome you reiecte as the Lutherans in this poynt the Swinkefeldians Anabaptistes Libertines Henrinicolaites and such other do all disagree with you from the Catholike church of Rome therefore you are all together naught By this reason all Christianitie might bee condemned of the Iewes and Gentiles because so many sectes and heresies as be vnder the name of Christianitie together with the true Church of Christe be all against Iudaisme Gentilisme But agreeing or disagreeing of men among themselues is a weake argument to proue or disproue any thing onely agreeing with the trueth is a sure reason to allowe and disagreeing from the trueth is a certeine argument to refuse either men or matter propounded by them The two and fourtieth Chapter beginneth the exposition of the wordes of Christe after the Catholike manner with certein proues of the same First he setteth downe the sayings of the three Euangelistes Mathew Marke and Luke and of the Apostle Paule in which they describe the institution of the sacrament of which he sayeth not one maketh any mention of tropes figures or significations wherein hee vseth a shamelesse kinde of Sophistrie for although they name no tropes or figures or signification yet by the Papistes owne confession Saint Luke S. Paule vse manifest tropes figures and significations namely where they say This cupp is the newe testament in my bloud First it is a trope or figure to saye the cupp for that which is conteined in the cup vnlesse they will say that the cupp of what metall or matter so euer it was was likewise transubstantiated into the bloud of Christe Likewise where he sayeth this cuppe is the newe testament or couenant he must either acknowledge a signification this cuppe signifieth the newe testament or else he must make the newe testament to be nothing else but a cuppe Finally where he sayeth this cuppe is the newe testament in my bloud except hee acknowledge a trope or figure he will vtterly denye that which is in the cup to be the bloud of Christe And out of all controuersie this manner of speache vsed by Saint Luke and Saint Paule is a manifest interpretation of the wordes vsed by S. Mathewe and Saint Marke this is my bloud which are all one in sence and meaning and teache vs howe the wordes spoken of the breade are to be interpreted this is my bodie this is the newe testament in my bloude which is as much to saye this is a seale and confirmation of the newe couenaunt which is remission of sinnes purchased by the breaking of my bodie and the shedding of my bloud for you This breade and this cuppe receiued of you shall assure you that you are truely incorporated into my bodie so made partakers of eternall life This interpretation hath in it nothing farre fetched or strange from the words of Christ the vsuall maner of speaking in the scripture But nowe M. Heskins will proue that the wordes of Christ are to be vnderstanded without trope or figure by the slaunders of the Infidels which defamed the Christians in the primitiue Church for eating the fleshe of men and of children as appeareth in Euseb. lib. 5 Cap. 2. 3. in the storie of Blandina and Attalus martyrs when they did eate the flesh of Christ. But none of them neither in Eusebius nor yet Iustine Origen Tertullian or any other that haue written Apollogies defended the Christians by the commaundement of Christ to eat his bodie but vtterly denyed and derided the slaunder that they were sayde to eat the fleshe of men or children as they did other slaunders which had no ground nor similitude of trueth as that they worshipped an Asses head that they companyed together in the dark like brute beastes and such like whereas if they had eaten the naturall fleshe of Christ as the Papists teache they woulde neither haue simply denyed the eating of a mans flesh nor yet haue spared to shewe how it was eaten vnder the formes of bread wine to auoide all crueltie and lothsomnes As for the legend of S. Andrewes passion which M. Heskins sayeth was written per Presbyteros diaconos Achaie is of as good credit as the booke of Beuis of Hampton the like I say of the fable of Amphilochius a newe found olde writer concerning the Iewe that sawe a childe diuided when the sacrament was broken The Legend and festiuall haue many such miracles But why did he not see a man diuided seeing Christe is not nowe a childe but a man Belike the authours of those miracles thought that if they feigned him to be a little child like Tom
from our sight but also place it in heauen and in steede therof he leaueth the sacrament of his bodie and bloude which no man doubteth but it ought to be honoured as so high a mysterie deserueth but not as God or Christe The other saying of Eusebius which hee addeth doeth shewe howe it is to be honoured When thou commest to the reuerende altare to be satisfied with heauenly meates beholde with faith the holy bodie and bloud of thy God honour it wonder at is touch it with thy minde take it with the hande of thy heart and cheefely receiue it with the inwarde draught What can be layed more plainely for the spirituall receiuing and the like reuerence to be giuen to so holie a sacrament But because M. Heskins thinketh this saying to make more against him then for him therefore he sayeth to auoyde cauilling Eusebius proceedeth sone after in these words Sicut autem c. As any man comming to the faith of Christe before the wordes of baptisme is yet in the bands of the olde deis but when the words are spoken is foorthwith deliuered from all dregâ— of sinne So when the creatures are set vppon the holie altares to be blessed with heauenly words before they be consecrated by inuocation of the most highest name there is the substance of bread wine but after the wordes of Christ the bodie bloud of Christ. This is a plaine place for M. Iuell what else But if it be rightly vnderstood it is a plaine place against M. Hesk. for he sheweth the change or transubstantiation that is in the Lordes supper to be the same that it is in baptisme which is spirituall and not carnall and so doth verie fitly compare them together or else his similitude were to no purpose if it were not to shewe by that which is don in baptisme what is likewise done in the other sacrament M. Heskins still blattereth of a bare figure which is of vs always denyed Consequently he citeth Bernarde whose authoritie I leaue vnto him being a burgesse of the lower house in which he hath many voices as he hath neuer a one in the vpper house though he wrest their speaches most iniuriously To confirme some phrase of Bernard he rehearseth certein phrases of the old writers like to them in words but not in sense which haue bene aunswered alreadie as Hierom. ad Hed. qu. 2. Our Lord Iesus is the feaster the feast he that eateth and which is eaten Ambrose in praepara ad miss which is none of his but falsly intituled to him Thou art the Priest and the sacrifice wonderfully and vnspeakably appointed And Augustine in Psal. 33. He was borne in his owne hands But he leaueth out a worde which expoundeth both Augustine and all the rest that speake so quodam modo after a certeine manner Christ was borne in his owne hands is the feast that which is eaten the sacrifice I say quodam modo therefore not simpliciter Last of all he wil ioyne issue to subscribe on this point that the proclaimer can bring but one auncient doctor that saith the sacrament is not to be adored To whome I answer that forasmuch as in the primitiue church the opinion of transubstantiation was not knowen there neuer grew any question of the adoration of the sacrament as that Papistes nowe do vse it and commaund it The eyght and fortieth Chapter confuteth the rest of the proclaymers wordes before rehearsed against the honouring of Christ in the sacrament The words which he taketh vpon him to confute are these It is a newe deuise to worship the sacrament About three hundreth yere past Pope Honorius commaunded it to be lifted vp and the people reuerently to bowe vnto it How doth he confute these words First he saith it is no newe deuise but the contrarie that is the denying of the adoration is not past fourtie yeres old and yet he confesseth before that some infected with the heresie of Berengarius Wickliffe might whisper it in corners yet Berengarius and Wickliffe preached openly beâ—ore them Bertrame wrote a booke to Charles the great wherein he confuteth the reall presence which began in that time to be receiued of some as it seemeth vpward euen to Christ al the auncient fathers are against that carnall presence consequently against adoration But to proceede Admitting that Honorius was the first that commaunded it to be worshipped which was 300 yeres agoe yet is he elder then Oecolampadius not defamed of heresie as Oecolampadius was yes M. Hesk he is defamed of more then heresie and proued to bee an antichrist As for the continuance of 300. yeres in an errour can make no prescription against the trueth But he saith it is a fond argument of the proclaimer Because Honorius commaunded the adoration of the sacrament therefore it was neuer in vse before But if it were generally beleeued vsed in all ages before as M Hesk. would beare vs in hande what neede had Pope Honorius to commaund it He saith in like manner the fleshly sort of them dispute to mainteine their shamelesse abode with their women it is a newe deuise that priests should not marrie inuented by Vrban and Gregorie Whether M. Heskins were marryed or else had a shamelesse abode with a woman I leaue to be tryed by God the countrie in the countie of Cambridge But to the purpose I haue not heard any affirme these late Popes to be the first forbidders of marriage and therefore it is to no purpose that he citeth Syluester before them and Calixtus before him and the counterfet Canons of the Apostles before them all And yet by the prohibition of the latest Popes it is certeine that Priestes were married vntill their time And for as much as the scripture alloweth their marriage and condemneth the forbidders thereof and the eldest fathers in the primiâ—iue church confesse no lesse it is not to bee regarded although a whole hundreth Popes in a rowe did euery one forbid it The like example he bringeth of fasting in Lent decreede in the eight Toletane counsell neere 700. yeres after Christe but yet affirmed of Hierome to be a tradition of the Apostles For so they vsed to father such ceremonies and vsages as they knewe not the beginning of them vpon tradition of the Apostles neuerthelesse he cannot shewe any Pope or any councell before Honorius that did commaund adoration of the sacrament wherefore the wordes are vnconfuted vntill the contrarie can be shewed After this the Proclaimer sayth he falleth to mocking the Scholasticall doctours as S. Thomas Duns Durand Holcos and such like to make it seeme a dangerous thing to honour the sacrament for that the people cannot discerne the accidents from the bodie of Christ and so may committ idolatrie in honouring the outwarde formes in steede of Christ or if the priest do â—mitt consecration This M. Heskins calleth a mocking but he is not able to auoide it in good earnest
saintes in heauen what the rest be he doth not determine he meaneth Siluester Isodore Innocentius Betram Durand Holcot Dunce c. Which if they haue written any thing that is ridiculous in defence of Poperie it were better men should laugh at their follie then be still deceiued with their errours But whereas M. Hesk. will set a player on a stage and a boy in the Paâ—â—is to answere the Bishop I weene it be more then the reuerend M. Doctor Heskins reuested in Doctoralibus and inthronized in his Doctours chayer dare well take vpon him to doe That whiche followeth in this Chapter is consumed in cyting and vrging of the forenamed wryters whose authoritie we doe not admitte appealing alwayes from the lower house of punys Burgesses to the higher house of auncient Barons The sixtieth Chapter proceedeth in exposition of the same text by Theophylacte and Paschasius Although we might demurre vpon the vnderstanding of those wordes of Theophylact In 14. Matth. That the bread wine are transelementated into the vertue of his flesh bloud yet considering the corrupt time in which he liued his authoritie is not worth the striuing for And whereas Maister Heskins would make him so say no more then the olde fathers Hilar. Iren. Cyril Chrysost. c. Seeing we haue already considered their testimonies it were superfluous to repeate them againe in this place and as often as it pleaseth Maister Heskins to abuse their names The one and sixtieth Chapter continueth in the exposition of the same wordes by Oecumenius and Anselmus Oecumenius saith litle to the purpose too or fro But Anselmus goeth more roundly to the matter as one that was the scholler of LanfraÌ„cus which wrote against Berengarius Neuerthelesse vpon these wordes of his riseth some other matter Neque eminet For we do neither altogether exclude a figure froÌ„ this sacrament nor admit an only figure This place M. Hesk. would haue to expound Tertullians figure but we haue shewed before it will not serue Vnto this he addeth Augustine cited in the Popes decrees but not to be found in his workes in these wordes The bodie of Christ is both the trueth and a figure The trueth whyle the bodie and bloud of Christ in the vertue of the holie Ghost is made of the substance of bread and wine but that is the figure which is outwardly perceiued De cons. Dist. 2. Cap vtrum When these wordes are found in any worke of S. Augustines we will make aunswere to them otherwise we may not receiue them of the onely credit of the Popes law Vnlesse they haue such meaning as the saying of Hilarius B. of Rome which followeth Corpus Christi c. The bodie of Christ which is takeÌ„ at the altar is a figure whyle the bread wine are seene outwardly and a truth while the bodie and bloud of Christ inwardly are beleeued It seemeth to me this saying to be playne ynough that the sacrament is an outward figure of the bodie and bloud of Christ which is inwardly receiued spiritually by faith As Gratian also reporteth the wordes of the same Hilarie De Cons. Dist. 2. Vbi pars est Non enim est quantitas visibilis in hoc aestimanda mysterio sed virtus sacramenti spiritualis The visible quantitie is not to be regarded in this mysterie but the spirituall vertue of the sacrament But M. Heskins proceedeth and by Anselmus authoritie he will auoide the trifling sophysticall argument made by Maister Pilkinton in the open disputation holden in Cambridge By like Maister Heskins had not learned the solution at that time and therefore nowe he sendeth it ouer the sea to him The argument was this Christe tooke bread he blessed bread he brake bread wherfore he gaue bread to his disciples if he gaue bread then not his bodie M. Heskins saith he so vseth the words as though by the actes which the verbes expresse nothing had beene done Yes M. Heskins he chaunged the vse but not the substance But by the like sophisme saith Maister Heskins he might proue that he gaue no sacrament of his bodie For that he deliuered which he tooke but he tooke bread no sacrament therfore he deliuered bread no sacrament But by his patience this sophisme of his is nothing like Maister Pilkintons argument For in one proposition he speaketh of the substance in the other of another qualitie or affection beside the substance as in this example that which you bought in the shambles you haue eaten but you bought cowe fleshe therefore you haue eaten caulfes fleshe Euerie childe seeth this followeth not But if I speake of the substance in both alike it followeth as thus That which you bought in the market you haue eaten but you bought mutton therfore you haue eaten mutton Vpon the premises graunted this argument followeth of necessitie and such is the argument of Maister Pilkinton which all the Papistes in Louayne can not answere The tâ—o and sixtieth Chapter abideth in the exposition of the same wordes by Rupertus and Nicholaus Methonen In this whole Chapter is nothing worth the reading and much lesse the aunswering for he doeth nothing but cite and vrge the sayings of these two late writers of whose authoritie he knoweth we make none account as there is no reason why we should they being members of the Popish Church For the auncient writers whome he nameth their sayinges haue beene already weyghed and aunswered The three and sixtieth Chapter taryeth in the exposition of the same wordes by Innocentius Germanus The authoritie of Pope Innocent the third which called the Laterane Counsell in which transubstantiation was first decreede must needes be of great credite with vs But Germanus bishop of Constantinople the Popes sworne enimie I marueile why hee is ioyned with the Pope For that he saith is small to M. Heskins purpose and therefore he helpeth him out with Damascen yet he confesseth his saying subiect to cauilling For where he writeth that in the sacrament Dominus conspicitur c. Our Lorde is both seene and suffereth him selfe to be touched by the feâ—â—full and holy mysteries c. and so sayeth Chrysostome thou seest him thou touchest him thou eatest him c. Maister Heskins sayeth we reason and so wee maye in deede that we eat him as we see him which is onely by faith But M. Heskins with profound Logike wil aunswere this argument that a thing is sayde to bee seene when the outwarde formes are seene and so Christe is seene when the formes of bread and wine are seene But by his fauour a thing is seene when the proper formes accidents thereof are seene but the forme or accidents of bread and wine are not the proper formes of Christes bodie therefore Christes bodie is not seene by them no more then I see a man when I see the house wherein he is or then I see a knife when I see the close case or sheath wherein it is And
the words of Germanus can abyde no such boyish sophisme for hee sayeth Christ is seene by the fearefull and holie mysteries but neyther bread nor wine by M. Heskins confession much lesse the accideÌ„ts of them are fearfull holie mysteries therfore the whole sacrament is so called by which Christ is seene touched and eaten but with the eye hand and mouth of faith The foure and sixtieth Chapter sheweth the exposition of Petrue Çluniacensis Bessarion vpon the same In this Chapter beside the sayings of this Dan Peter of Clunye Bessarion which for a Cardinals hatt in the counsell of Florence forsooke the vnitie of the Greeke church he maketh a short repetition of all the authors names sayings whom he hath cited vpoÌ„ this text This is my bodie which because I haue aunswered at large it were needelesse to recapitulate in this place I trust the indifferent reader will confesse that not one of the highher house hath giuen a cleare voyce on his syde but all are most cleare against him The fiue and sixtieth Chapter treateth of the bread blessed and giuen by Christ to the two disciples in Emaus and proueth by Theophylâ—st Bedâ— that it was the sacrament It shal be easily graunted him that not only these two whome he nameth of late time but also diuerse of the auncient doctours are of opinion that Christ did giue the sacrament at Emaus but yet it followeth not that it was so For no certeine circumstance of Scripture can leade vs or them so to thinke Beda in 24. Luke writeth thus â—erti mysterij causae c. It came to passe for the cause of a certein mysterie that another shape shoulde bee shewed to them in him and so they should not know him but in the breaking of bred â–ª left any man should say that he hath knowen Christ if he bee noâ— partaker of his bodie that is to say of his Church whose vnitie the Apostle commendeth at the sacrament of the bread saying one bread we many are one bodie that when he reached to them the blessed bread their eyes were opened that they might know him This place indeed sheweth that Beda his opinion was that the sacrament was there giuen but either for transubstantiation or the real presence or for the communion in one kinde he sayth nothing For the English church in his time knewe none of all these monsters The sixe sixtieth Chapter proueth the same by S. Augustine and Chrysostome I sayd before we confesse that not Augustine onely but other also of the fathers were of this opinion The place of Augustine hath ben alreadie cited considered I would also omit the place of Chrysostome but that he gathereth further matter out of it then the pretence of this Chapter He is cited in Hom. 17. in Math. Quia de sanctis c. Because we haue begon to speake of holy things it is not to be left vnspoken but that sanctification is one thing and the thing sanctified another For that is a sanctification that sanctifieth another thing but that which is sanctifyed cannot sanctifie another thing although it selfe be sanctified As for example thou â—ignest the bread which thou eatest as Paule saith it is sanctifyed by the worde of God by prayer Thou hast sanctified it thou hast not made it sanctification But that which the priest giueth from his hand is not onely sanctified but also it is sanctification because that onely is not giuen which is seene but also that which is vnderstoode Of the sanctified breade therefore it is lawfull to cast to beastes and giue it to infidels because it doth not sanctifie the receiuer But if that which is taken of the hande of the priest were such as that which is eaten at the table all men would eate of the table and no man receiue it of the priestes hands Wherefore our Lord also did not onely blesse the bread in the waye but gaue it with his hand to Cleophas his fellowe And Paul fasting did not onely blesse the bread but also reached it with his hande to Luke and the rest of his disciples Three things M. Heskins noteth First that Chrysostome calleth the sacrament not only a sanctified thing but also sanctification it selfe And here he would haue the aduersarie to answere him where this sanctification resteth in the bread or in the priest I answere in neither of both but in Christ which is the heauenly matter of the sacrament receiued by faith for if sanctification rested in the bread then all they that receiue the bread should bee sanctified but all they that receiue the bread receiue not sanctification neither be they sanctified therefore sanctification resteth not in the breade and so consequently the bodie of Christ is not in the bread And whereas M. Hesk. reasoneth that the priest giueth sanctification I answere that is said because he giueth the outward sacrament as Iohn baptised yet speaking properly of the ministerie of man he restraineth it to the washing of water The seconde thing he would haue noted is that Christe deliuered the sacrament to Cleophas and his fellow wherof as Chrysostome hath no ground in the scripture so that which he affirmeth that Paule in the ship should minister the sacrament which is the third thing M. Hesk. obserueth is vtterly false and confuted by the text For his exhortation was to the whole multitude whereof the greatest parte and almost all were infidels And the text sayeth that they did all receiue foode being satisfyed cast the rest ouer borde to lighten the shippe But the place Actes 2. that they continued in the doctrine of the Apostles communication breaking of bread prayers I confesse may well and aptly be vnderstood of the participation of the Lords table yet nothing lesse may be gathered out of it then that horrible sacriledge of robbing the church of the Lords cupp because bread is onely named as in the next Chapter shal be shewed The seuen and sixtieth Chapter proueth by the scriptureâ— and practises in the last Chapter handled that the Communion vnder one kinde is lawfull and good It aunswereth to one parte of the challenge he saith to proue that the communion was ministred within 600 yeres after Christe in one kinde onely And this he will do verie easily For he beginneth with Christ himselfe whome moste impudently and blasphemously he affirmeth to haue ministred the Communion in one kinde onely to the disciples at Emaus First although diuerse of the olde writers are of opinion and yet wthout asseueration that Christe there gaue the sacrament yet none of them is so bolde to gather any such diuision of the sacrament out of that place Secondly notwithstanding their opinion it is most probable that hee neuer ministred the sacrament after his first institution thereof not onely because there is no mention thereof but because he gaue that as the last pledge of his presence with them immediatly
that the creatures themselues that were the elements of their sacraments figures should be more excellent glorious because the inwarde grace was not so clearely reuealed and it was meant the sacraments figures should be many more in nomber because the doctrine was much lesse manifest then it is to vs But concerning the inward working of God there is no doubt but it is as marueilous as wonderfull in our sacraments as in theirs and in respect of illumination according to the doctrine which is more lightsome and of full assurance as of that mysterie which is alreadie accomplished it is much more excellent notable in our sacraments which are as Augustin sayth in number most fewe in matter most simple in signification most excellent Ep. ad Ian. 118. Primò itaque tenere te volo quod est huius disputationis caput Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum sicut ipse in euangelio loquitur leui iugo suo nos subdidisse sarcinae leui Vnde sacramentis numero paucissimis obseruatione facillimis significatione praestantissimis societatem noui populi colligauit sicut est baptismus Trinitatis nomine consecratus communicatio corporis sanguinis ipsius si quid aliud in scripturis canoniâ—is contineatur First therfore I would haue thee hold this which is the head of this disputation that our lord Iesus Christ as he him selfe speaketh in the Gospell hath submitted vs to his gentle yoke easie burthen Therfore by sacraments in number most fewe in obseruation most easie in signification most excellent hee hath bound together the fellowship of the newe people as is baptisme being consecrated in the name of the Trinitie the communication of his bodie and bloud if any thing else be conteined in the canonicall scriptures Thus you see notwithstanding the vaine cauils of M. Hesk. wherein our sacraments are equall with theirs and wherein ours are more excellent then theirs so that we haue no neede of his reall presence to make a difference betweene the sacraments of the newe testament the sacraments of the olde fathers which though they liued vnder the old testament yet were they saued by the newe testament in the forgiuenesse of their sinnes by Christ as we are The thirteenth Chapter proueth the same by scriptures Doctors In the beginning of this Chapter he rayleth against Luther Oecolampadius Caluin c. but without proofe of any thing and therefore I count it not worthie of aunswere Secondly he will proue that the sacraments of the olde lawe are weake and beggerly elements not onely nowe when they be abrogated but also when they were in their greatest strength and therefore in no respect equall with ours For proofe hereof hee alledgeth the Apostle to the Hebrues 7. that the lawe brought nothing to perfection Chap. 10. The law hauing the shadowe of good things to come and not the verie facion of the things them selues can neuer with sacrifices which they offer make the commers thereunto perfect But hee is verie ignorant if he knowe not as he pretendeth or else verie obstinate if he will not acknowledge that the Apostle as he writeth to the Hebrues so he speaketh of the lawe as the vnbeleeuers esteemed it that is altogether seperated from Christ so of the ceremonies therof and not as the lawe and the ceremonies thereof were considered of the faithfull with Christ the ende and accomplishment of it and them For otherwise Christ him selfe is called a minister of circumcision for the trueth of God to establish the promises of the fathers Rom. 15. ver 8 After this he gapeth and cryeth out vppon Oecolampadius for saying that our bread is no better then the Lamb of the spirituall fathers Whereas if hee speake of the elements in both there is no question if of the heauenly parte that he sayth is true neuerthelesse there is a dignitie an excellencie of our sacrament about these and that is in clearnes of vnderstanding the mysterie therof as I haue often shewed And all the textes and authorities that Maister Heskins citeth proue nothing else As first Iohn Baptist was greater then all the Prophets because he spake more clearly of Christ being present whoÌ„ they described to come when he sayed beholde the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the worlde that confirmeth Chrysostome in Math. Hom. 38. comparing Iohn to that noble man that commeth next to the king And Oecumenius preferreth Iohn because he prophesied of him whome he sawe and baptized Wherupon Maister Heskins gathereth that if Iohn were the more excellent Prophet because he sawe Christ present of whome he prophesied then the sacrament must bee more excellent because he was present whome it figured By like reason he may gather that they that were baptized in Christs preseÌ„ce were better baptized then we are now But the reason holdeth as I sayd before not of the bodily presence but of the clearer doctrine that was by meanes of his presence So Abraham desired to see the day of Christ and sawe it Ioan. 8. yet blessed are your eyes sayeth he which see that you see for many Prophets righteouse men desired to see haue not seene the things that you see that is although they haue seene them by faith yet not so clearely as you haue seen them and so be the verie wordes of Chrysostome which M. Hesk. citeth in 13. Math. Hom. 46. vpon that place Manye Prophets and righteous men haue desired c. that is saith Christ My comming presence myracles voice For here he doth not onely preferre them before those lost and damned men but also he affirmeth them to be more excellent and happie then the Prophets righteous men Why so Because they do not only see these things which they haue not seene but also those things which they desired to see these men sawe with their eyes For they also by faith did beholde these things but these much more clearly did see all things You see therefore howe vainly he cauelleth against Oecolampadius and the trueth when the texts and authorities he citeth be al cleane contrarie vnto him selfe The fourteenth Chapter proceedeth in the proofe of the same by the Scriptures and doctors His first proofe shal be that the sixt Chapter of Iohn is to be taken of the blessed sacrament and this is proued in his second booke where also I haue aunswered how it is taken and in what respecte it perteineth to the sacrament namely as the sacrament is a seale of the doctrine conteined in that Chapter To this proofe he addeth the consent of the church vntil Luther in so much that when the heresie of the Communion vnder both kindes waâ— raised in Bohemia they grounded it vpon that Chapter Note by the way that the Communion vnder both kinds instituted by Christ and practised in the Church a thousand yeares after Christ is called of Maister Heskins an heresie The third proofe is that Iohn spake
no man of learning will acknowledge them to be his And seeing the Greeke Liturgies are very vnlike the Latine Masse hee doth but mocke the ignorant readers to say they be all one Finally hee doth most absurdly conclude that his Masse should be within the compasse of Saint Augustines rule ad Ian. Ep. 118. That those thinges which the vniuersall Church obserueth throughout the worlde we may vnderstand that they are retayned as ordained either of the Apostles them selues or of the generall Counsels whose authoritie in the Church is most profitable Illa que per orbem vniuersa obseruat Ecclesia datur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel a plenarijs concilijs quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrim a authoritas statuta retineri Thus hath M. Hes. cited Augustine to haue a starting hole vnder the name of the church but Saint Augustines wordes are somewhat otherwise Illae autem quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quÄ™ quidem toto terrarum orbe obseruantur datur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenarijs concilijs quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima authoritas commendata atque statuta retineri sicuti quod Domini passio resurrectio ascensio in Coelum aduentus de Coelo Spiritus sancti anniuersaria solennitate celebrantur si quid eliud â—ale occurrerit quod seruatur ab vniuersis quacunque se diffundat Ecclesia Those things which we obserue being not written but deliuered which truely are obserued throughout all the world it is giuen to be vnderstoode that they are retained as commended and decreed either by the Apostles or by generall Counsels whose authoritie in the Church is most wholsome as that the Passion resurrectioÌ„ of our Lord and his Ascention into heauen and the comming of the holy Ghost from heauen are celebrated with yerely soleÌ„nitie or if there be any such like matter which is obserued of all men wheresoeuer the Church spreadeth her self But seing the Popish Masse was vnknowne to the world in Augustines time neuer vsed throughout the worlde of all men for the orientall Churches neuer receiued it to this day if it haue no better holde then it getteth by this place of Augustine it must needes fall to the ground And thus much concerning the name fourme of the Masse In the next Chapter we shall heare of the matter or substance of the Masse it selfe The three and thirtieth Chapter treateth of the Masse it selfe Maister Heskins first with rayling tearmes taketh exception to the proclaymers diuision of the Masse into foure partes Prayers consecration receiuing doctrine except he adde oblation as the fifte or comprehend it vnder the name of consecration Moreouer he saith this is but a description of Masse in the large signification But the Masse it selfe properly is the holie consecration of the bodie and bloud of Christ the holy oblation and offring of the same in the memoriall and remembrance of his passion and death with humble and lowly thankes lawdes and prayses for the same and holy receiuing of that body and bloud so consecrated Here is the Lions skinne couering the asse but yet not so closely but the long eares may be seene hanging out For as the forme of these wordes for the most parte may be applyed to the holy communion so almost by euerie word he vnderstandeth another thing then either the scriptures or the auncient fathers do teache as we shall best see in the examination of the partes which followe First where he sayeth the proclaymer cannot abide consecration he sayeth falsely for both he graunteth consecration and the presence of Christes bodie and bloud but not the Popish charming nor their carnall manner of presence whiche how they be proued by M. Heskins let the readers iudge Oblation the second part he sayeth is proued in the first book and declaration of the prophesies of Melchisedech Damascen Malachie and in the 37. Chapter In the same places let the reader consider the answere In receiuing which is the thirde part two things saith Maister Heskins offend the proclaymer that is receiuing vnder one kinde and receiuing of the Priest alone The former is defended by him Lib. 2. from the 64. Chap. to the end of 67. Chap. there it is in this booke confuted The priuate receiuing he saith shall be defended afterward In doctrine the 4. part he knoweth not what faulte the proclaymer can finde wherein is greatest fault of all but M. Heskins will haue nothing to be the doctrine of the Masse but the Gospell and Pistle and other scriptures that are read in it In prayer the fift and last parte he findeth two faultes namely prayer to Saintes and for the dead for triall of these he will haue recourse to the primitiue Church It is well he can haue no recourse to the holie scriptures nor to the most ancient Church which is properly called the primitiue Church although these two errors be of great antiquitie But before M. Heskins vndertake these trials he girdeth at the communion ministred in copes and the proclaymer wearing Aarons garment for a bishoprick If the Popish priestes had no more pleasure to say masse in their vestments then the proclaymer to minister in copes I thinke the common sort of Papistes would haue lesse deuotion to the Masses then Gods people haue to the communion when it is ministred without any ceremoniall attyre But Maister Heskins will proue that neuer yet was heard off that Christ himselfe saide Masse For he instituted the Masse in his last supper and that he will proue by Cyprian but why doth he not rather proue it by the Euangelistes Forsooth because the scriptures haue no such vnproper speech to make any shewe of the Masse as Cyprian and the rest of the fathers haue Well let vs heare how Cyprian affirmeth that Christ saide Masse Maister Heskins saith First for the consecration Lib. 2. Ep. 3. He writeth thus Vt in Genesi c. That the blessing in Genesis by Melchisedech the priest might be duely celebrated about Abraham the image of the sacrifice appointed in bread and wine goeth before which thing our Lord perfecting and fulfilling offered bread the cup mixed with wine and he that is that fulnesse hath fulfilled the veritiâ— of the prefigured image In these wordes M. Heskins forgetting that Christ offred bread wine gloseth vpon the veritie of the image fulfilled by Christ and expressed by Cyprian in other wordes Obtulit c. He offred the same thing which Melchisedech had offered that is bread and wine euen his bodie and bloud Here againe is bread and wine offered by Christe which is his bodie and bloud after a spiritual manner as it was offered by Melchisedech Hitherto no worde of consecration nor of the carnall manner of presence but directly against it Nowe let vs heare howe he proueth oblation Quaerendum est c. It must be asked whom they haue folowed For if in the sacrifice which is
sacrifice of thankesgiuing or a memoriall of the sacrifice of Christ by which it is easie to iudge howe the doctrine that the Papistes do nowe holde of the propitiatorie sacrifice of the Masse doth agree with the auncient Liturgies ascribed to the Fathers of the Primitiue Church The eight and twentieth Chapter treateth of the prayer for acceptation of the oblation or sacrifice made in the Masse and vsed as well by the Apostles as the Fathers That the Apostles and Fathers commended to God by prayers the sacrifice which thei offered it is a manifest argument that they offered not a propitiatorie sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christe for that needeth no commendation of our prayers They prayed therefore that their sacrifice of thankes giuing and duetifull seruice celebrated in the memorie of Christes death might be acceptable to God as you shal see by al their prayers First the Liturgie vntruly ascribed to Iames praieth thus Pro oblatis c. For these offred and sanctified precious heauenly vnspeakable immaculate glorious feareful horrible diuine gifts let vs pray to our Lord God that our Lord God accepting them into his holy heauenly mentall and spirituall altar for a sauour of spiritual sweet smell may giue vs againe and send vnto vs the diuine grace and gift of the most holy spirite These sanctified giftes can not be the body and bloud of Christe which are holy of them selue but the bread and wine sanctified to be a memoriall of the death of Christe in a spirituall sacrifice of thankesgiuing Saint Clement if wee beleeue Nicholas Methon prayed thus Rogamus c. We pray thee that with mercifull and cheerefull countenaunce thou wilt looke vpon these giftes set before thee thou God which hast no neede of any thing and that thou mayest be pleased with them to the honour of thy Christ. These wordes are plaine that he offered not Christe but the breade and wine to bee sanctified to the honour of Christe namely that they might be made the body and bloud of Christe to as many as receiue them worthily In the Liturgie imputed to Basil the Priest prayeth thus Dominum postulemus c. Let vs desire the Lorde for these offered and sanctified the most honourable giftes of our Lorde God and for the profite of the goods of our soules that the most mercifull God which hath receiued them in his holy heauenly intelligible altar for a sauour of sweete smelling would send vnto vs the grace and communion of his holy spirite The same wordes in a manner be in the Liturgie fathered vppon Saint Chrysostome though it be manifest that it was written seuen hundreth yeares after his death as is shewed before Pro oblatis c. For the offered and sanctified precious giftes let vs pray the Lorde that our mercifull God who hath receiued theÌ„ in his holy heauenly intelligible altar may send vs therfore grace the gift of the holy Ghost Maister Heskins would haue vs note that these Fathers seeme to pray for their sacrifice which we note very willingly for thereby is proued that their sacrifice was not the very body of Christ for that nedeth no commendation of our prayers Wel S. Ambrose followeth Lib. de Sacr. 4. Cap. 6. Petimus c. We pray and desire that thou wilt receiue this oblation in thy high altar by the handes of the Angels as thou hast vouchsafed to receiue the gifts of thy seruant righteous Abel and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham and that which thy high Priest Melchisedech offered to thee The very name of gods heauenly mental intelligible holy high altar do argue a spirituall sacrifice and not a reall oblation of the naturall body and bloud of christ Next to these Liturgies Maister Heskins adioyneth the wordes of the Canon of the Popish Masse agreeing in effect with these of Ambrose but nothing at all in vnderstanding For that the Papistes esteeme their sacrifice to be very Christ God and Man which none of the auncient fathers did For which cause the Bishop of Sarum iustly reproued those three blasphemies in their Canon not in respect of the words but in respect of their vnderstanding of them The first that they seeme to make Christ in his fathers displeasure that he needeth a mortall man to be his spokesman The second that the body of Christe should in no better wise bee receiued of his father then a Lambe at the handes of Abel The third that they desire an Angel may come and carie away Christes body into heauen These three blasphemies M. Heskins taketh vpon him to auoyde or excuse To the first after many lowd outcries and beastly raylings against that godly learned father of blessed mâ—mory he answereth defending it first by example of these auncient Liturgies that they prayed for their sacrifice but this helpeth him not for they neither thought nor saide that their sacrifice was very Christe God and Man but a sacrament and memoriall of him Afterward hee saith the meaning of their Church is not to pray for Christe but by Christ to obtaine fauour bicause they say in the end of euery prayer per Christum Dominum nostrum by our Lord Christ. But this hole is too narrowe for him to creepe out at For he confesseth that he prayeth for his sacrifice and he affirmeth that his sacrifice is Christ therfore he praieth for Christ. To auoyde the second blasphemie hee saith that the meaning of their Church is not to pray that God will accept the sacrifice which is acceptable of it selfe but their deuotion and seruice and them selues the offerers as hee did accept Abell and his sacrifice c. and so flyeth to the example of the olde Liturgies but that will not serue him For their sacrifice was not a propitiatorie sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ but a seruice and duetie of thankesgiuing in remembrance of Christe And therefore they might well pray that their sacrifice might be accepted as Abell and his sacrifice as Noe and his burnt offering and so of the rest but this meaning will not stande with the wordes of their Canon which are that God will accept the sacrifices that is the body and bloud of Christ as hee accepted the giftes of his iust seruaunt Abell c. Therefore they must either chaunge the wordes of the Canon or his aunswere to the second accusation by the meaning of their Church can not stande howe so euer Hugo Heskins would seeme to salue or rather to daub vp the matter To the third and last hee aunswereth denying that the meaning of their Church is that the body of Christe should be caried by an Angel but that their prayers should bee offered by an Angel or Angels in the sight of GOD making a long and needlesse discourse of the ministerie of Angels and howe they offer our prayers to GOD which is nothing to the purpose For the Maister of the sentences affirmeth that an Angel must be sent to
consecrate the quickening body or else it can not be called a Masse which is nothing like to Maister Heskins seruice Lib. 4. dist 13. In the end he will ioyne issue with the proclamer that no Catholique euer thought that Christes body was caried into heauen by an Angell And it seemeth plainly that they are all ashamed of the grosse absurdities and blasphemies of their Masse and therefore are forced to feigne meanings and interpretations which are cleane contrarie to the wordes thereof The trueth is that these and some other prayers of their Canon were vsed in the Romane Church before the opinion of transubstantiation carnall presence or propitiatorie sacrifice of the Masse were receiued and this is the cause that being nowe applyed to these monstruous errours they imploy such detestable blashemies as all the Papistes in the world are ashamed to heare of and not able to defend whereas before these errours receiued some of them were good prayers some were tolerable The nine thirtieth Chapter treateth of the value of the Masâ—â— to the quicke and the dead Prayer for the dead beeing an auncient errour Maister Heskins triumpheth out of measure that he findeth some spottes thereof in the auncient writers bookes But there is great difference betweene praying for the dead which is an errour rising of superstition and infidelitie and offring the bodie of Christe in sacrifice for the dead which is a most horrible blaspheming Therefore he doeth maliciously wrest such thinges as are spoken of prayer for the dead or the sacrifice of prayer for the dead yea and sometimes the sacrifice of thanksgiuing for the dead to the oblation of CHRISTE for the dead Thus he abuseth first all the liturgies falsely ascribed to Saint Iame Basil Chrysostome Which as we haue proued before pretended not to offer Christes body in sacrifice and therfore offred it not for the dead although they offer prayers for the dead And here it is to be noted that Clementes liturgie forsaketh him for prayer for the dead or else we should surely haue heard of him as we did before He would get credite to that whiche is vntruely ascribed to Saint Iames by the proclaymers testimonie because he saide it was full of knowledge and full of errours also When Dionysius can say nothing for him concerning the sacrifice of the Masse to be auaileable for the dead he bringeth him in speaking of prayers made for the partie deceassed at his buriall Concerning the antiquitie of this Dionysius we haue shewed before that he cannot be so olde by sixe hundreth yeares as the Papistes would make him That the Apostles taught not prayer for the dead in their writinges he saith the cause was that they needed not for that the Iewes vsed both prayer sacrifice for the dead before Christes comming â–ª by testimonie of the Booke of Machabees which he sayeth S. Augustine alloweth canonicall and by witnesse of one Antonie Margarita a late conuerted Iewe to Papistrie Touching the veritie of that historie of the Machabees though Augustine allowe it to be read so it be soberly yet doeth not he take it for Canonicall and Hierome vtterly denieth it for Canonicall Expreâ—at in Prouerb But for as much as this controuersie of praying for the dead is vnpertinent to this cause and requireth a larger discourse then the answere to this Chapter may conteine also that Maister Heskins in the end ioyneth issue and maketh a newe challenge I thinke it best to referre the Readers to mine answere against Maister Allens Booke of Purgatorie where he shall finde all those and a number more of places alledged and answered both touching prayers for the dead and the sacrifice of the Masse to be auaileable to the dead in the same also is some treatie of prayer vnto dead Saintes In the meane season this is sufficient against all mans authoritie that the worde of God prescribeth neither the one nor the other but condemneth them both for what so euer is not of faith is sin and whatsoeuer is not of the word of God is not of faith therfore prayers for the dead and to the dead beeing not of the worde of God are sinne Neither were they vsed in the Church more then an hundreth yeres after christ And the first that maketh mention of any praiers for the dead which is the elder errour by two or three hundreth yeres is Tertullian wheÌ„ he was an heretike who had receiued it with other heresies of the Montanistes who were two hundreth yeares after Christ notwithstanding that Epiphanius Augustine number it among the errours of Arrius that he denied prayers for the dead yet they both do also number it for one of the heresies of the Heracleonites to redeeme their dead with inuocations and other ceremonies vsed at their buriall How M. Heskins falsifieth the councel of Carthage which made a decree that such as denied to pay the oblations of the dead should be excommunicated as murtherers of the poore I shall not neede to rehearse vnderstanding dead mens legacies for the vse of the poore for Masses saide for the dead The same doeth M. Allen with this and other councels Likewise M. Heskins falsifieth Cyprian De Cerna Dom In huius praesentia non superuacuè in endicant lachrymae veniam nec vnquam patitur contriti cordis holocaustum repulsam In presence of him teares do neuer begge pardon in vain neither doeth the sacrifice of a contrite heart euer suffer repulse Here doth he translate Huius of this sacrifice and applyeth it to the sacrifice of the Masse for the dead whereas there is not one worde in all that sermon either of prayer or sacrifice for the dead But leauing this argument of praying and offering for the dead M. Heskins chargeth the the proclaimer with three vntrueths in one sentence where he saide that Saint Iames in his Masse preached and set foorth the death of Christ but the Papistes in their Masse haue onely a number of dumbe geastures and ceremonies which they themselues vnderstande not and make no manner mention of Christes death To the first he answereth that they haue all thinges that S. Iames had in his Masse by the proclaymers confessioÌ„ who diuideth their Masse into holie prayer holie doctrine holy consecration holy receiuing See the impudent quarrelling of this froward sophister The Bishop saith the Papistes diuide their Masse into these partes therfore he acknowledgeth their Masse to consist of these partes and yet all these are but dumbe gestures and ceremonies because the people vnderstand none of them were they neuer so good as a great parte of them is starke naught To the second he saith that they them selues vnderstand not their owne gestures and ceremonies he sayeth that diuerse writers haue expounded euerie parcell of them as Isidorus Rabanus Hugo Hoffnester Garetius and others he leaueth out Bonauentur and Durandus the cheefe belike beeing ashamed of their ridiculous interpretations But admitte these things to be set foorth in bookes doth
more certeintie and better credite then the Papists can bring any shewed by God since the restitution of the Gospell yet because our doctrine is the same that was confirmed by all the miracles of Christ and his Apostles we seeke no confirmation thereof by later miracles but onely by the scriptures And herein we followe the example of S. Augustine who vrgeth the Donatistes to proue themselues to be the Church of God only by Canonicall scriptures not by miracles whereof they boasted more then the Catholikes Lib de vnitate Ecclesiae Cap. 16. Et sic ostendat vt non dicat verum est quia ego hoc dico aut quia hoc dixit ille collega meut 〈◊〉 illi collegae mei aut illi Episcopi vel clerici vel laici nostâ—i aut ideo verum est quia illa illa mirabilia fecit Donatus vel Pontius vel quilibet alius aut quia homines ad memorias mortuorum nostrorum orant exaudiuntur aut quia illa illa ibi contingunt aut quiae ille fraeter noster aut illa soror nostra tale visum vigilans vidit vel tale visum dormiens somnianis Remoueantur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituun ut eniâ—â— non sunt vera quÄ™ dicuntur aut sihÄ™reticoruÌ„ aliqua mira facta sunt magis canere debemus And so let him shewe the Churche that he do not say this is true because I say it or because such a one my fellowe saide it or those my fellowes or those our bishops or clearkes or laymen or it is therfore true because Donatus or Pontius or any other hath done those and those miracles or because men pray at the memories of our dead men and are heard or because those thinges those things happen there or because this our brother or that our sister sawe such a vision waking or dreamed such a vision sleeping Let these thinges be set aside which are either the counterfetting of lying men or els the wonders of deceiuing spirits for either those things are not true that are told or else if any miracles are done of heretiques we ought the more to beware of them And after a litle he saith in the same Chapter Sed verum ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum scripturarum canonicis libria ostendant quia nec nos propterea dicimus nobis credere oportere quòd in Ecclesia sumus quia ipsam quam tenemus commendauit Mileuitanus Optatus vel Mediolanensis Ambrosius vel alij innumerabiles nostre coÌ„munionis episcopi aut quia nostrorum CollegaruÌ„ concilijs ipsa praedicata est aut quia per totum orbem in locis sanctis quae frequentat communio nostra tanta mirabilia vel exauditionuÌ„ vel sanitatum fiant ita vt latentia per tot annos corpora Martyrum quod possunt a muâ—tis interrogaÌ„tes audire Ambrosio fuerint reuelata ad ipsa corpora caecus multorum annorum ciuitati Mediolanensi notissimus oculos luménque reciperet aut quia ille somnium vidit ille spiritu assumptus audiuit siue ne iniret in partem Donati siue vt recederet à parte Donati QuÄ™cunque talia in Catholica fiunt ideo sunt approbanda quia in Catholica fiunt non ìdeo ipsa manifestatur Catholica quia haec in ea fiunt But whether they holde the Churche or no let them shew none otherwise but by the Canonicall Bookes of the holie scriptures for neither do we say that men ought therfore to beleeue vs that we are in the Church because Optatus of Mileuitum or Ambrose of Millain or innumerable other Bishops of our fellowship haue commended this Church whiche we holde or because it is set foorth and praysed in the councels of our fellowships or because that in holy places thorough the world which our fellowship doth frequent so great miracles are done either of hearing mens prayers or of restoring to health so that the bodies of Martyrs which haue been hidden so many yeres which thing if they wil ask they may heare of many were reuealed to Ambrose at the same bodies one that had ben blind many yeres very well knowen to the citie of Millain receiued his eyes and sight or because this man saw a dreame or that man was taken vp in spirit and heard either that he shold not go into the faction of Donatus or that he should depart from it Whatsoeuer such things are done in the Catholike Church they are therefore to be allowed because they are done in the Catholike Church but the Church it selfe is not therby proued Catholike because these things are done in it And thus much concerning miracles The issue that M. Hesk. ioyneth is tried by all Catholike ancient Doctors that the Masse is idolatrie because it is a worshipping of creatures in steed of the creator although none of the olde writers call the Masse Idolatrie whiche had neither name nor being in their dayes The three and fortieth Chapter maketh recapitulation of the conference of the Masses of the Apostles and Fathers of the primitiue Church and of the Catholike Church that now is with a breefâ— confutation of the conference made by the proclamer betweene thâ— Masse of Saint Iames and that is now vsed The recapitulation conteining nothing but that which is confuted in the discourse at large I will omitte it and come to the conference that the Bishop made betweene the liturgie falsely ascribed to S. Iames and the Popishe Masse beeing content for the time to call it Saint Iames Masse as Maister Heskins doth although neither it is a Masse nor such as it is was it writteÌ„ by S. Iames the Apostle but by some of much later time as appeareth by the prayer therein conteined for such as liue in Monasteries and other thinges fauouring of the errours of that time in which it was written The first point of the conference is that S. Iames saide Masse in the common tong vnderstoode of the people the Papistes say Masse in a straunge tonge M. Heskins answereth that this point toucheth not the substance for the Masse may be good though it be not vnderstood but he himselfe maketh the doctrine of the Masse to be of the substance of it wherefore seeing there lacketh doctrine in the Masse there lacketh one of the foure substantiall partes But he would make the reading of the epistle and Gospel in Latine Doctrine and good doctrine What doctrine that is by which the people are not taught let reasonable men iudge for although all the Masse were nothing but scripture yet it were not good to be read in the Church in a straunge tong 1. Cor. 14. because it were not profitable for edifying His childish sophismes of Plato his substance and his accidents I disdaine to rehearse the trueth is manifest The second comparison S. Iames spake out of the words of consecration They in their Masse suppresse them and keepe them
nec festinantes nec accurrentes Tel me I pray thee If any King had commanded and said if any man haue done this or that let him not come to my table wouldest not thou haue done any thing for his sake God hath called vs into heauen vnto the table of the great and wonderfull King and doe we refuse and make delayes neither making haste nor comming to so great and excellent a matter This place of Chrysostome doth teach vs that Christes bodie commeth not downe corporally to vs but that we are called vp into heauen to receiue him there spiritually by faith This is in deede a great and wonderfull mysterie which Chrysostome doeth garnish with many figures as he was an eloquent preacher to make the people to haue due reuerence thereof Neither is Luthers doctrine one hayre breadth differing from Chrysostoms iudgement concerning the preparation necessarie for all them that shall receiue the sacrament worthily howsoeuer it pleaseth Maister Heskins neuer to haue done railing and reuiling him charging him with that which I thinke the holy man neuer thought certeine I am he neuer did teach but the contrarie And because this is the last testimonie he citeth out of Chrysostome I thought good to set downe one place also directly ouerthrowing his transubstantiation for which he striueth so egerly It is written Ad Caesa. monachum Et Deus homo est Christus Deus propter impassibilitatem homo propter passionem vnus filius vnus Dominus idem ipse procul dubio vnitarum naturarum vnam dominationem vnam potestatem possidens etiamsi non consubstantialiter existant vnaquaeque incommixta proprietatis conseruas agnitionem propter hoc quod inconfusa sunt duo Sicut enim antequam sanctificetur panis panem nominamus Diuina autem illum sanctificante gratia mediante sacerdote liberatus est quidem ab appellatione panis dignus autem habitus est Dominici corporis appellatione etsi natura panis in ipso remansit non duo corpora sed vnum filij corpus predicattâ—r sic haec Diuina inundante corporis natura vnum filium vnam personam vtraque haec secerunt Christe is both God and man God because of his impassibilitie man for his passion being one sonne and one Lord he himselfe doubtlesse possessing one domination one power of the two natures being vnited although they haue not their being consubstantially and either of them vnmingled doeth keepe the acknowledging of his propertie because they are two vnconfounded For euen as the bread before it be sanctified is called of vs bread but when the grace of God doth sanctifie it by meanes of the priest it is in deede deliuered from the name of bread and is compted worthie of the name of our Lordes bodie although the nature of the bread hath remained in it and it is not called two bodies but one body of the sonne so both these the diuine nature ouerflowing the body haue made one sonne one person I knowe Stephan Gardener when he can not aunswere this place denyeth it to bee written by Iohn Chrysostome ascribing it to an other Iohn of Constantinople but seeing it caÌ„ not be denied to be an ancient authoritie it is sufficient to proue the doctrine of transubstantiation to be newe and vnknowen to the Churche of God in the elder times The fiue and fiftieth Chapter proceedeth vpon the same by Isichius and S. Augustine To garnishe his Booke with the name of Isichius he continueth his most vniust and slaunderous quarrell against Luther as though he denied all preparation requisite to the woorthie receiuing of this holie sacrament which is so impudent an vntruth that all the world doth see it And God in time will reuenge it Isichius is cited In 26. Leuit. Probet autem c. Let a man examine him selfe and so let him eate of that bread and drinke of that cuppe What manner of examination doeth he speake of It is this that in a cleane heart and conscience and to him that intendeth to repent those thinges wherein he hath offended men should participate of the holy things to the washing away of their sinnes M. Hesk. would make men beleeue that Luthers doctrine were contrarie to this saying and multiplieth his slaunders against him which seeing they be without al proofe yea and manifest proofe to the contrarie it shall suffice to denie them and so to consider what he will bring foorth of S. Augustine He citeth him Ad Iulianum Ep. 111. Whereas in deede ther is no such Epistle in any good edition of Augustine and the treatise he speaketh of may rather be called a Booke then an Epistle for the length of it But the stile of it is as like vnto the stile of Augustine as our Asse is to a Lyon. It hath no inscription to whom it should be directed and therefore some say to Iulianus some to Bonifacius It beginneth O mi frater c. and so continueth in such balde Latine that Erasmus hath not only reiected it out of the number of Augustines Epistles but also out of his authenticall workes such iudgement or honestie M. Heskins vseth in citing the fathers all is fishe that commeth to his nette I will set downe the wordes Ab ijs pietas c. From them let the pietie of our Lorde Iesus Christe deliuer vs and giue himselfe to be eaten who saide I am the bread of life which came downe from heauen he that eateth my flesh drinketh my bloud hath euerlasting life in him But let euerie man before he receiue the bodie and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ examine himself and so according to the commandement of the Apostle let him eate of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that vnworthily eateth the bodie and bloud of our Lord eateth and drinketh his owne condemnation making no difference of the bodie of our Lorde Therefore when we shall receiue we ought before to haue recourse to confession and repentance and curiously to searche out all our actions and if we finde in vs any punishable sinnes leâ— vs hasten quickely to washe them away by confession and true repentance least we with Iudas the traytor hyding the diuell within vs doe perish protracting and hyding our sinnes from day to day And if we haue thought any euill or naughtie thing let vs repent vs of it and let vs make hast to scrape that speedily out of our heart This is the saying of this counterfet and forged Augustine out of which Maister Heskins gathereth not only his manner of presence to be such as the wicked receiue the bodie bloud of Christ but also his auricular confession But what the iudgement of the true Augustine is you haue hearde before concerning the former as for the later question is neuer touched in all his owne workes De ciuit Dei Lib. 21. Cap. 25. Non dicendum eum manducare corpus Christi qui in corpore non est Christi It is not to
Sander perhaps would insinuate And the hystorie of the Church is described by Eusebius Socrates Theodore c. by the doctrine vttered in preaching writings and consent in councels and doings and sufferings of the Elders of the Churches and not altogether or cheefely by their knowen gouernement as Maister Sander affirmeth As for example Eusebius sheweth the doctrine of Clement out of his writing for the allowance of marriage who affirmeth that the Apostles were married begot children Lib. 3. Cap. 30. Socrates sheweth that Spiridion a Bishop of Cypres in time of his Bishopricke of great humilitie kept sheepe Lib. 4. Cap. 12. Sozomenus saith he had a wife and children and sheweth his iudgement for eating flesh on a fasting day accounting him no Christian that would refuse it Lib. 1. Cap 11. Finally although some Churches haue ben known by their Pastors and Bishops yet haue there bene infinite Churches known to be in the worlde whose Bishops Pastours are altogether vnknowen And although some heretical and Schismatical companies haue bene knowen by their heades yet not all for the Acephali were so called because they had no head the Anthropomorphites also were rustical Monkes or Eremites in Aegypt vnder no head of their owne but the Bishop of Alexandria which was a Catholike Niceph. Lib. 13. Cap 10. 8 Although the Churche of Christ ceassed not at the end of the first fiue or sixe hundreth yeares nor the glory of Christes kingdome was euer darkened yet a greate number of the Bishops and pastors of the visible Church began then to be dimme and some altogether darke because they lighted not their candels at the word of God the onely true light shyning in the darke but declined to the inuentions of men and doctrine of diuels according to the prophesie of Saint Paule 2. Thess. 2. of the apostasie and departing from the faith 1. Tim. 4. towarde the comming reuelation of Antichrist Neither is it true that M. Sander saith that after the first 600. yeares the Church was spread into mo countries then it was before but the contrarie For Mahomet soone after peruerted the greatest parte of the worlde whereas Affrica long before was ouerrunne and Christianitie spoyled by the Vandales which were either Heathens or Arrians Notwithstanding some small countries haue beene since that time turned to the Christian profession And as it is true that Pastors and Doctors must still be to the end of the worlde in the Church and Christ neuer forsaketh the same so is it false that Popish Bishops Priestes which either were ignorant or altogether negligent in feeding and teaching the Churche with the foode and doctrine of Gods worde whereof Saint Paule spake Ephesi 4. or taught the doctrine of Diuels in steede thereof be those Pastours and Doctours by whome the preaching of the Gospell is continued though they sitte in the same places where sometime the true teachers satt euen as Antichrist their head sitteth in the Temple of GOD which is the proper place of Christe Neither is the credite of such late writers as account them for successors of the Apostles and godly pastours and teachers sufficient to authorise them for such in deed when their whole life and doctrine is contrarie to the writings of the Apostles and those auncient godly Pastors Doctors 9 We say not that the Church of Christ was knowen for the first â—00 yeres after Christ only or chiefely by the Bishops Pastors therof but by their doctrine agreable to the word of god And therefore it is sufficient ground for vs to deny the later rout that professeth not the same doctrine to be the church of christ The succession of persons or places without the continuance of the same true doctrine can no more defende the Pope poperie then it could defend Caiphas Sadduceisme For Caiphas a Sadducei which denyed the resurrection coulde more certeinly declare his personall and locall successioÌ„ from Aaron then the Pope can from Peter 10 I haue proued before that it is false which Master Sander againe sayeth to be true that Eusebius and other writers point foorth the church of 500. yeres onely or chiefely by Bishops which ruled in Rome Antioche Alexandria c. The doctrine actes of those Bishops agreeable to the scriptures is their description not their personall or locall succession as it was accompted in the latter times when they had nothing else to commende their counterfet Bishops being in life and doctrine contrarie to the worde of God the testimonie of the primitiue church And where he sayeth noting in the margent August Ep. 165. that in olde time they were knowen to be heretikes which departed from the knowen companie of Bishops Pastors agreeing in one faith c. it is verie true but then this faith was proued to be true not onely by successions of Bishops but by the holye scriptures as the same Augustine sayeth in the same place Quanquam nos non tam de istis documentis praesumamus quà m de scripturis sanctis Although wee do not presume so much of those documentes as of the holie scriptures To conclude all practises and councels that are contrary to the holie Scriptures were then refused euen as they be nowe Cyprian refused the practise of ministring the communion with water because it was contrarie to the scripture Augustine refused the practise of Cyprian and the Councell of Carthage â–ª for rebaptizing them that were baptized by heretikes and for the same cause our church refuseth the Masse the Laterane and the Tridentin councels without daunger of schisme or heresie 11 The vniuersall church is a spiritual collection of many members into one bodie whereof Christe is the onely head both in heauen and earth as the Apostle sayeth Eph. 3. Cor. 15. The vnitie hereof is mainteyned by following the direction of his worde and his holye spirite The order of particuler churches is mainteined by the seuerall gouernement of them But their whole church although it be like an armie of men well sett in arraye yet can it haue no one chiefe Capteine in earth to direct it but hee that is omnipotent and fitteth in heauen not onely to ouerlooke it but to rule and order it For no mortall man can looke into all places knowe all cases prouide against all mischiefes nor giue ayde in all dangers 12 Therefore Peter was none such and although Pascere be both to feede and rule yet it is to rule like a Shepeheard and not like an Emperour Neither were the sheepe by Christe committed to Peter more then to the other because hee loued more then the other but Peter was charged as hee woulde by his forwardnesse shewe more zeale and loue then the rest so to employe the same to the feeding of Christes flocke And whereas Maister Sanders quoteth Chrysostome in Ioan Hom. 87. I knowe not wherefore except it were to shewe the prerogatiue of Peter aboue the rest You shall heare what his iudgement was
in reformation no doubt but there were mutuall messages betweene them The vnion and communion of our Church with other particular Churches of God throughout the world is spirituall made by the working of the holy Ghost and not by embassages or orders taken by men But the same is declared and shewed by the confession of our faith fully agreeing in all necessarie Articles with them 91 The publique protestations and confessions of our faith doe shewe our reconciliation and coniunction with the Catholique Church of Christ without that it is needfull for vs to exhibite any billes of submission to any singular persons as hath bene vsed in cases of particular discipline as in reconciliation of Vrsarius and Valens to Iulius of Rome Maximus Vrbanus other to Cyprian of Carthage 92 The realme did neuer submit it selfe to Luther Zuinglius or Caluine but to Christe and his Church As for offring of billes of submission to forreigne Bishops it is no part of Christian discipline But if it were a matter of any substance al the Cleargie of England gaue their subscription to the Archbishop of Canturburie and other Bishops for the departure out of the Popish Church into the Church of England That we receiued not the errour of Luther concerning the reall presence it sheweth wee depend not vpon any man further then his doctrine is true and agreeable to the word of God. 93 Caluine and Zuinglius although they receiued some light of vnderstanding by the ministerie of Luther yet came they not from him but were stirred vp of God as he was 94 The realme in King Edwards time neuer purposed to submit them selues to Caluine who although he misliked the title of supreme head in that sense whiche Steuen Gardiner maintained it at Ratisbone as though it gaue vnto the King an absolute authoritie to do what he would in the Church yet in that sence that it was receiued of King Edward and vnderstoode of all godly men that is to bee the highest Magistrate in the Church as well for the ordering of Ecclesiasticall as ciuill matters he neuer did condemne it 95 King Edward retaining that title in the godly sense aboue rehearsed the Church of England notwithstanding was vnited to the Catholique Church of Christ throughout the world 96 When Queene Marie came to the Crowne shee found the realme a member of the Catholique Church of Christe which she forsooke and sought to bring it in bondage againe to the Antichristian See of Rome which by meanes of a Legacie from the Pope brought by Cardinall Poole long before attainted for treason against his Prince and countrie was by an acte of Parleament yeelded vnto Although GOD reserued more then seuen thousand that neuer bowed their knee to Baal of Rome whereof many were cruelly put to death and suffered martyrdome the rest were persecuted and by the protection of God escaped out of that bloudie and fierie persecution 97 The seat of Peter could not be planted at Rome in the dayes of Claudius the Emperour bycause that in the tenth or eleuenth yeare of his Empire Peter was at Antioch reproued by Paule Gala. 2. The last yeare or the first of Nero S. Paule writte his Epistle to the Romanes from Corinth where he taried almost two yeres in which Epistle he sending salutation to sixe and twentie singular persons beside diuers families would not haue omitted to salute Peter if he had bene there But admit that Peter had a seat at Rome yet the Papacie hath not continued from that time but since the dayes of Boniface the third which was more then â—00 yeares after Christe Neither hath the faith of the See of Rome continued without chaunge as M. Sanders saith these 1500. yeares but is altogether in a manner chaunged from the faith of Peter and of the Apostolike Church therefore Queene Marie bringing the realme to that Church did not reconcile it to the true Church of Christ but restored it to the slauerie of the Antichristian tyrannie 98 Seeing the realme is nowe againe returned to the embracing of the doctrine of the Gospell set foorth in the holy scriptures taught in the Primitiue Church many hundreth yeares after Christe continued in all times though vnder persecution of Antichrist and nowe openly and publiquely professed of many nations it is a member of the true Catholike Church of Christe whereof Christe onely is the head and communicateth with the Church of Christ of all nations in all pointes of true religion necessarie to saluation and therefore is no seismaticall Church but a Catholique and Apostolique Church 99 The Catholique Church of Christe whereof the Church of England is a part is an inuisible Church and therefore an Article of our faith which is of things inuisible Heb. 10. and no Church vnder a bushell But Hierusalem that is in heauen is the mother of vs all Gala. 4. Contrariwise the Popish Church which is visible is the Church of Infidels and Rome which is vpon earth is the mother of all Antichristians 100 The preaching of Gods worde is the ground of faith â–ª the celebrating of the sacramentes is the confirmation of the same these exercises haue alwayes beene in the true Churche of God when they be not hindred by persecution 101 The Gospell of Christ hath beene preached vnto all nations And the Church hath had Pastours and teachers froÌ„ Christes time vnto Luthers age Maister Sander asketh where they were through all nations As though it were necessarie they should be in euerie nation at all times Poperie when it was at the largest had not teachers in all nations For many coÌ„tinue in barbarous Gentilisme beside Mahometisme which hath filled the greatest part of the worlde The Church of Christe is scattered in many nations and hath had and now also hath many Kinges that walke in the light thereof And at this time more then the Popish Church hath 102 The true Church in England is honoured nourished by the Kinges whome she honoureth as supreme gouernours heades or rulers thereof And although Ecclesiasticall persons pay subsidies vnto their princes yet are not their Princes and their Courtiers nourished by the goodes of the Church as Maister Sander moste slaunderously reporteth otherwise then it is meete that subiects should contribute to the maintenance of the state of the Prince and their owne defence 103 The worde of God written is in deede honorable and true and conteineth all that doctrine by whiche the Church of God was gouerned two thousand yeres before any word of the Bible was written when by reason of that long life of the Patriarches the tradition might be certeine The Gospell also was preached by the Apostles before any of the foure Gospels was penned but yet agreable to the scriptures of the olde Testament and is the same that is written and none other which written word of God is able to make the man of God perfect and is deliuered vnto the Church of Christe as a moste certeine rule to followe that
it might not be deceiued by vncerteine traditions and inuentions of man in steeede of the doctrine of God. 104 The Popishe Church hath not kept the worde of God faithfully but in a corrupt and false Latine translation The certeintie therfore of the scriptures was not receiued from them but from the Iewes concerning the olde Testament in Hebrue and from the Gręcians concerning the new Testament in Greek Although the very common Latine translation of the Bible is sufficient to conuince the Popish Church of horrible heresies and blasphemies 105 To refourme the Church according to the doctrine of the holie scripture and the example of the Primitiue Church is not like as if one reading of the olde lawes of England in an other Ilande would say it were England and that the countrie whiche is so called is departed from olde England For chaunge of Lawes cannot change places and regions but departing from the trueth of Gods worde is a departing from the Churche of Christe and the returning to that trueth is a returning to the Church of Christ notwithstanding Maister Sanders wise similitude The Prophetes in deede Esaie Ieremie c. by the lawe of Moses shewed the errours of the Church of Ierusalem and by it sought the reformation thereof But they renounced not the lawful gouernement of the high Priest because it was established by the lawe whereas the tyrannicall vsurpation of the Pope is contrarie to the lawe of Christ and therefore is moste iustly renounced 106 It is graunted that the Church of Rome was once a principall parte of the Churche of Christe But the successions of Popes since Popes were hath not continued so without interruption as the successions of the highe Priestes at Ierusalem by meanes of so many Schismes Antipapes and translation of the See from Rome to Auinion with so many and so long variations of the See. And the succession of Christians except in a fewe hath vtterly failed as Esaie saith of Ierusalem how is the faithfull citie become an harlot Esaie 1. 107 It is graunted that of olde time the Romane faith was accounted the catholike faith while it was so in deed euen as the Britanne faith the French faith the Germane faith was likewise But that whiche he inferreth is vtterly denied namely that the Pope and his citie haue continued in the profession of that faith to this day For the contrarie beeing proued it is not onely the euill manners of the Pope and that citie that haue moued vs to departe from the Churche but the false religion therof Although it is nothing like that where suche a sinke of all abhominations is and hath beene openly and generally seene aswel in the Popes as in the people of his citie there should be a true and sincere faith and religion whiche bringeth foorth wicked and vngodly fruites 108 The glorie of Christes Church and kingdome is not like to the kingdome and glorie of an earthly Empire but contrarie to it namely it is spirituall and not carnal inwarde and not outwarde in appearance of weaknesse pouertie foolishnesse and not of strength riches and wisedome 1. Cor. 1. 109 The wayes to see and heare the Church of God is to heare the worde of God whereof commeth faith by the eyes whereof the Church of God is seene and not by bodily eyes to be painted out loe here loe there for the kingdome of God is within vs Luc. 17. vers 21. 110 Notwithstanding any thing repeated in this article conteined in seuerall articles before 19.20.64.18.22.24.25.26.31.46.27.41.42.56.43.45.48.36.39.67.65.68.20 the Popish Church is the Church of Antichrist therefore we haue iustly departed from it to the Churche of Christ. 111 In the Church of Christ is the word of God the sacramentes forgiuenesse of sinnes the holie Ghost the communion of Saintes and Christ himselfe which is the onely head and sauiour thereof But whether the Papistes holde this Church or we let them proue as S. Augustine vrgeth the Donatistes by none of these fonde and carnall reasons but only by the authoritie of the scriptures De vnitate Eccles. Cap. 16. 112 The rest of the preface is consumed in dissuading the Papists of England frō dissembling their professiō of Papistrie exhorting them to make open confessiō therof which next vnto their conuersion I wish as much as M. Sander that if they may not be conuerted to become true Christians and good subiectes they might be knowen as they are for open heretikes enimies of their Prince and Realme ¶ A TREATISE OF IMAGES OF Christe and of his Saintes and that it is vnlawfull to breake them and lawfull to honour them c. THE FIRST CHAPTER THe Argument of the treatise following In which he noteth especially The storie of the spoyle of Images in the lowe countries The diuersitie of sectes there The holie Bible burnt Hermannus a preacher capteine of the spoyle THE defence of idolatrie whiche he taketh in hand beeing so abhominable to be heard among Christians after he hath first sought to dasell mens eyes with the vaine glitering glorie of the Romish Church now he goeth about to tickle their eares with a plausible tale of some disorderly doinges in breaking of Images in the lowe countries As though the inconsiderate zeale of a fewe image breakers or perhaps the licentious riot of some pilfering spoylers beeing either Papistes or of no religion that were mixed with them were sufficient to excuse such horrible Idolatrie as the Papistes daily commit and M. Sander is not ashamed to defend He pretendeth as though his purpose were no more but to answere an obiection of I cannot tell what Protestants nor he him selfe is able to name any of credite which affirmed that the casting downe of idolatrie in the lowe countries and liberty of preaching the gospel procured by a few naked base men against an armed Prince and so many wealthy persons as were enimies to it must come of the mightie hand of God and that it was a great miracle Whiche thing might well and truely be saide without allowing of any thing that was done beside order For there is no doubt but God directed all things to his glory although men sought not the same by lawfull ordinarie meanes It was no miracle saith M. Sander because they were not resisted in suche places where the spoyle was made But so much the greater was the miracle that in so many places the heartes of the magistrates with the people were so daunted that they durst make no resistance The storie as M. Sander reporteth it is that the Lordes of the low countries dissenting from king Philip about the Spanish inquisition the king lyke to be assaulted by the Turkes in Naples and Malta resorte was made to a certaine preacher not called by anye auctoritie in the woods and fieldes neere to Antwerpe The first quarrell he picketh is to the preachers callinge whiche in suche times as religion is in a manner ouerthrowne and defaced by Idolatrie as
are forbidden to be made That the worde of God forbiddeth not the making of all images generally it is a matter out of controuersie with vs although the Iewes and Mahometistes think the contrarie But seeing making of images is by the seconde commaundement expressely forbidden wee may clearely perceiue what images are forbidden to be made if wee consider that this is a precept of the first table which concerneth religion Therefore by it were are forbidden to make to our selues any manner of images for any vse of religion M. Sander saith that Iewes were onely forbidden to make them as straunge Gods for when the Lord had said Thou shalt haue no straunge Gods imediatly shewing what are straunge Gods hee saith thou shalt make no grauen images Beside that this interpretation is a confusion of two commaundements in one the former shewing the matter or substance of Gods honour the other the essentiall forme thereof to be spirituall it is proued false by these reasons diuers nations worshipped liuing creatures which were no images as Cattes Oxen Crocodiles Serpents Apes as Gods therfore the interpretation of strange Gods can not be images The Israelites worshipped the true God Iehoua which brought them out of the land of Aegypt in the image of a Calfe Exo. 3â— So did the Israelites vnder Ieroboam and euen those Gentiles that did worship images with godly honour they did worship theÌ„ but as images of the Gods them selues whome they confessed to dwel in heauen earth the sea or hell except some ignoraunt persons among them euen as among the Papistes the like haue bene that did thinke the very Idols to be Saintes and were moued thereto by the falshood of the Popish Priestes which would make their eyes to gogle water their lippes to stirre their noses to bleede their faces to sweat euen as by pricking their finger they made their Masse cakes to bleede The Gentiles also though they worshipped many Gods yet they honoured one Iupiter aboue all the rest of the inferiour Gods whom they worshipped but euen as the Papistes worship the Saintes And to that one God they did attribute as great praise as the Papistes doe to the highest god The Poet Horace saith Quireâ— hominum ac Deorum Qui mare terras variisque mundum Temperat horis Vnde nil maius generatur ipso Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum Proximos illi tamen occupanit Pallas honores It is hee which gouerneth the affaires of men and Gods which ruleth the Sea and the land and the whole world with diuers seasons So that nothing is brought foorth greater then hee neither is there any thing like him or second vnto him Yet Pallas receiueth the next honour vnto him Compare this confession of the Heathen Poet with that the Papistes teach of the worshippe of GOD and our Ladie and see howe like they be But to returne to Maister Sanders interpretations hee maketh a second restraint vpon these wordes Thou shalt not make to thy selfe that is by thine owne priuate iudgement but such images as I shal appoint to be made thou maist haue This restraint is right and according to the meaning of the worde of god For by this are excepted the brasen serpent the Cherubims and what so euer beside GOD commaunded to be made and had in any vse of religion As for the images of the Lions about Salomons throne the Oxen that bare vp the see of brasse the Pomgranets Date trees and other flowers made for the ornament of the temple were in no vse of religion and without all daunger of worshipping therefore not prohibited by this commaundement no more then the images of beastes fishes birdes trees in bookes of Philosophie or the painting of stories in clothes or galleries c. But whereas Maister Sander in this restriction enlargeth the commaundement of God to be vnderstoode not onely that which is deliuered by the speciall and certaine messingers of God Moses the Prophetes and the Apostles but also addeth their successours of whose calling we haue no warrant of GOD I may not therein agree with him For hee quoteth for successours of the Apostles Paulinus Gregorie and the second Councell of Nice yea Eusebius Basil Ambrose Augustine Chrysostome which all erred from the Apostolique doctrine in some pointes although none of the fiue last named allowed the hauing of images in Churches Eusebius Li. 7. cap. 18. speaketh of an image in the streat made by the Gentiles Basil Hom. in 40. Martyres of images of men of warre painted for imitation but not in the Churche Chrysostomes Liturgie was written in the dayes of the Emperour Alexius sixe or seuen hundreth yeares after Chrysostomes death Ambrose in vita Geruasij is a meere forgerie for the right Ambrose De suga saeculi cap. 5. Ecclesâ—â— manes idÄ™as vanas nescit simulachrorum figuras The Church knoweth no improfitable formes and vaine figures of images Augustine De consensu Eu. cap. 10. the place by him quoted condemneth them that sought Christe in painted walles of Gregorie Nyssen we haue spoken in the Chapter before the other whome he citeth Paulinus and Gregorie of Rome we refuse as erronious and the second Nicen assembly as Idolatrous But M. Sanders proceedeth to defend the makers of images whome the scripture accurseth saying that it meaneth either makers of idols or else makers of wanton images or at least such as make them for an euill end and purpose Concerning the first hee findeth fault with the English translation which euery where almost turneth idols into images As though the Hebrue wordes which the English translation expresseth had that ridiculous distinction of idols and images yea as though the very vulgar Latine translation Psalme 113. which he quoteth calleth them not Simulachra images the makers whereof are accursed Concerning the second it is plaine the Psalmist speaketh not of wanton images but of such as were worshipped of the Heathen And to the thirde I graunt it meaneth them that make them to an euill end and purpose as all Popish image makers doe which make them to the end they might be set vp in Churches to be worshipped contrarie to Gods commaundement But the last reason for the defence of image making would serue to perce a marble stone with the subtiltie thereof and yet when all is done hath as much reason in it as the blockes which it defendeth Mans naturall vnderstanding is by conceiuing images made and brought vnto it by the externall and inward senses therefore it is lawfull to make carued images We may conceiue in our mind an image of Christe nayled on the crosse therefore we may make it of wood or stone and worship it O subtile argument But syr you graunt the making of Idols to be forbidden but those conceiued images of the minde are called Idolls by them that teach you that they be such conceptions of things therefore this argument a paribus will serue you to defend Idolls as well as images Yet
better then a piece of brasse which was a figure of Christe and yet he was not blasphemous against the death of Christe But heare his reason Christe vouchsafed to segregate it from other wood to make it the instrumēt of his passion Where find you that Christ did choose his crosse I thinke it was rather appointed to him by the Iews then prouided by him selfe if you say he did segregate it in his secret determination I answere that so he did segregate Iudas Annas Caiphas Pilate the Iewes and souldiers to be instruments of his passion And yet none of them therefore to be regarded or worshipped except of those detestable heretikes that thinke they were profitable instruments of our redemption But O holy swords axes of tyrants and tormentours that were embrued with the bloud of the Martyres O holy fire that burned them O holy water that drowned them O holy gallowes and ropes that hanged them For why should not these also haue their regard and worship according to the proportion of their deserts whose eternal felicity they were instruments to procure Yet once againe M. Iewell is challenged for denying the cognisances of the crosse in flags banners or targets to be images Also the letter that Ezechiel sawe in vision the crosse that Constantine sawe in the ayre the marks in mens garments and the mysticall letters in the temple of Serapis First touching the mark which Ezechiel saw it is not described of what figure it was onely that a marke was set for Tau signifieth a marke and not onely the name of a letter which in that time perhaps it had not so did S. Cyprian read it Contra Demetrianum transi mediam Ierusalem notabis signum super frontes virorum Go through the middest of Hierusalem and thou shalt marke a signe vpon the foreheads of the men The signe that Constantine sawe was the character of the name of Christ in two letters X P after this maner as both Euseb. witnesseth and his coynes yet remaining do shew ☧ Eu. de vit Con. lib. 1. and therefore no crosse nor signe therof The marks that haue appeared in mens garments perhaps were imagined rather thē images as children imagine dragons Gryphons in the clouds The mystical letters in the temple of the idol Serapis could haue no relation to the crosse of Christ which the idolaters knew not Therefore the follie of those ecclesiastical writers is bewraied that thoght christianitie much helped by such heathenish superstitious fantasies as for the rest I answere as M. Iewell that they are but barres laide one ouer an other and no images Yet M. San. maruelleth what blind ignoraunce this is so to say But to make the matter more plaine on his side hee maketh the shape of Christe hanging with his armes abroad all one with these signes or characters aforesaid which is no blinde ignorance but wilfull abusing of his readers without all shame or shape of honestie And yet he will baffull vs with a doutie definitiō of an image as he saith out of Gregorie Nazianzen that euery similitude likenesse or shape of one thing taken out according to the samplar of an other thing is an image then he runneth out into his old cōmon place of inward imaginations But I pray you syr who euer in those days or in ours sawe the crosse that Christ dyed on to make an image thereof according to the samplar If none but the painter or grauer hath imagined it then is it an image of an imagination which is the samplar thereof and not of the crosse of Christ and so it is counterfet and consequently by your own distinction an idoll And in very deed so many diuers figures and formes therof as we see to be made argue that there is no certaine truth knowne vnto men of what forme or figure it was for some make it headlesse thus ✚ some draw one barre through the other thus ✚ some drawe this barre at the vpper end some through the middest some make circles some squares some triangles at the foure endes some make them blunt some make them sharp c. some make the crosse ragged some euen so that there is no certentie and if al these be images of Christes crosse it skilleth not what proportion be kept in making of images according to the paterne Hitherto therfore M. San. fond argument to proue worshipping of images by M. Iewels confession hath no force to enter into any reasonable mans credite bicause hee hath neither proued these signes of the crosse to be images nor such regard as M. Iewel confesseth to haue bene a worshipping of them in that sense that the controuersie is betweene vs for worshipping of images But whearas maister Iewell saith the same crosses were not set vp in any Temple maister Sander confesseth not the same but other such as they were for proofe wherof he citeth a new found old Doctor called Euodius Bishop of Vzal in Affrike writing about S. August time a book of the miracles of S. Stephen in which he saith S. Stephens image was painted with a crosse on his shoulder c this old Doctor was firste painted at Louan anno 1564. but he cometh too late to claime his antiquitie after so many hundred yeares in which neither he nor his writing was euer harde off That the people were taught to kneele down to crosses which Maister Iewel denieth he proueth by the example of Probianus of whom Sozomenus in the tripartite historie doth write That being somtimes a pagane but afterwarde made a christian he did in some parte follow the doctrine of the Christians But he wolde not adore the cause of all our health that is the moste holy crosse Hee beeing of this minde the diuine power apeared to him and shewed him the signe of the crosse set on the aulter of that church And did manifestly declare that since Christ was crucified all thinges that were done for the vtilitie of mankinde had not been done by any meanes without the vertue of the reuerend crosse neither of holy Angels nor of godly men Here saith maister Sander it is euident that the signe of the crosse was set vpon the alter of S. Michaels church in Constantinople Yea sir in that vision if it were true But it is small euidence to proue that it stoode in the churche in deede For if it had stoode on the alter in such honorable estimation Probianus wolde not haue contemned it before But where you say he was compted no perfect Christian because he wolde not adore the holy crosse of Christ you walke still vnder your cloude of ambiguitie For how proue you that the adoration here spoken of is that kneeling to the crosse which the Bishop denieth to haue been taught it seemeth that Probianus newly conuerted from paganisme had not yet that honorable estimation of the reprochefull signe of the crosse which the Christians of that time had But whereas M. Iewell vpbraideth them with
their writinges verilye not hauing the images of their bodies but of their mindes For those thinges whiche are saide by them are the images of their mindes Likewise they cited the saying of Amphilochus sometime bishoppe of Iconium Non enim nobis sanctorum corporales vultus in tabulis coloribus effigiare curae est quoniam hijs opus non habemus sed politicè illorum virtutum memores esse debemus We haue no regarde to counterfet the corporall faces of the saintes in tables with coloures because we haue no need of them but we ought to be wisely mindfull of their vertues Moreouer they rehearsed the sayinge of Theodotus bishop of Ancyn Sanctorum formas species ex materialibus coloribus formari minimè decorum putamus horum cutem virtutes quae per scripta traditae sunt veluti viuas quasdam imagines reficere subinde oportet Ex hijs enim ad similem imitationem zelum peruenire possumus Dicant enim nobis qui illas erigunt quaenam vtilitas ex illis ad se redit an quòd qualiscunque recordatio eos habeat ex tali specie contemplatione sed manifestum est quòd vana sit eiuscemodi cogitatio diabolicae deceptionis inuentum We thinke it nothing at al seemely that the formes and shapes of the saintes shoulde be fashioned in materiall collours but their vertues whiche are deliuered by their writings as certain liuing images we ought often times to renue For by them we may come to the like imitation and zeale For let those which set vp images tell vs what profite commeth vnto them by them is it that a certaine remembrance come to them by such shape and sight But it is manifest that such cogitation is vaine and an inuention of diuelishe deceipte What shall here rehearse the testimony of Eusebius who whē the Empresse Constantia required to haue an image of Christ answered that no such images were to be made with many other sayings of Basil Gregorie Athanasius and other cited in that Councell which M.S. maketh so obscure as though they had mett by candle light and whispered in corners that they durst not be a knowne of But if it deserued not the credit of a councell what needed Irene to haue gathered this worshipfull councel of Nice against it And where M.S. for further allowance of it saith it was confirmed registred for a knowne lawful general councel throughout al christendom he speaketh out of al compasse of the trueth For the Emperour Charles the great would not receiue it but write or at the leastwise cōmanded Albinus or Alcuinus his teacher to write a booke against it in his name which booke is yet extant How it was receiued in Britaine Matheus Westm. testifieth in these words Eodem anno Carolus rex Francorum c. The same yeare Charles the king of Fraunce sent a synodall booke into Britane in whiche manye thinges were founde contrary to the true faith and especially this that it was defined by the consent of almost all the doctors of the East that images ought to be worshipped which doctrine the Catholike Church doeth altogether accurse Against which Albinus wrote an Epistle beinge marueilously well indighted by the authoritie of holy scriptures and the fame brought vnto the Frenche king with that synodall booke in the presence of the bishops and noble men These thinges considered the conference that he maketh betweene this councell and the first helde at the same place is chyldishe and ridiculous for though they were both helde in one place called by Emperours or Popes equall in number disputation in both 4. Patriarks in both custome obserued the decree put in execution c. yet they disagreed in that which is the onely authority of councels The first decreed according to the word of God the later cleane contrary to it The first confirmed the Catholike faith which alwayes was held the later a newe heresie of Idolatrie of which the Churche was cleare more then sixe hundreth yeares And therefore what soeuer hee talketh of the authoritie of general councels is vaine wicked for a general councel of Angels is not to be beleeued against the holy scriptures what is more plaine in the scriptures then the forbidding of Idolatrie and worshippinge of Images The great prerogatiue that Master Sander findeth in this councell that so many bishops recanted in it as in none other is a fonde matter to authorize it Rather it sheweth what turne coates they were which changed as euerie prince was affected Finally the nomber of names that he rehearseth of them that beleeued as this councell decreed maketh it not of sufficient credit beside that he is not able to proue it of many whom he nameth as Beda Theophylacte Euthymius c. It were an easie matter to proue as many mo of more antiquitie which beleeued the contrary As Clemens Alexandrinus Origines Irenaeus Iustinus Cyprianus Lactantius Epiphanius Arnobius Tertulianus Augustinus Chrysostomus Hieronymus Ambrosus Athanasius Basilius Gregorius Naza Eusebius Osius and 18. bishoppes with him in the councel of Eliberis Theodosus and 21. bishoppes with him in the councell of Laodicea Aurelius and 71. bishops with him in the councell of Carth. 5. Amphylochius Iconiensis Theodorus Ancyramus Serenus Massiliensis Claudius Taurinensis Albinus Carolus magnus yea Gregorie 1 of Rome and Ionas of Orleance against the worshipping of Images If I woulde descende to later times as Master Sander doth I might add a great number more as Waldo Masilus Henricus de Gandauo Iohn Wiclef Iohn Hus Hierome of Praga and many other So that there remaineth in recorde foure to one that M. Sander can name for the vse and worshippinge of images against either one or both And the greatest part more ancient then the second councell of Nice which he woulde maintaine by rehearsing so many names of men that allowed it the most part were since it was holden scarse two or three before it was helde THE XVI OR XV. CHAP. That M. Iewell himselfe bringeth such reasons for worshipping breade and wine in the sacrament of the Alter because he saith they are the image of Christs bodie and bloude as may right well serue for the worshipping of all holy images It is proued by maister Iewells owne words that the image of an holy thing may be worshipped with what intent an image it made Maister Iewell hath filthie and vnhonest images in his owne booke This Chapter conteineth nothing else but a shameles cauilling and quarrelling vppon maister Iewels words with little wit lesse learning and least of all of honestie The bishoppe writeth thus The olde fathers in their writings commonly cal the sacrament a representation a remembrance a memory an image a likenesse a samplar a token a signe a figure And in an other place he writeth thus Neither do we onely adore Christ as verye God but also worship and reuerence the sacrament holy mistery of Christes bodie Here vppon maister Sander reasoneth
except they denied the institution of the sacrament patterne of reformation to be conteyned in the scriptures But if it be granted saith M. Rast. whiche is to farre absurde that S. Paule did reduce the Corinthians to the first originall and institution Why doe not rich men now bring meate to the Church and receiue the sacrament after they haue filled their bellies Forsooth because Christe instituted no such maner of suppers And why saith he do you not washe one anothers feete hauing a commandement so to do But if this commandement be litterally to be vnderstanded why doe you Papistes breake it If it be not why do you require that of vs which you confesse is not required to be done of any Humilitie is commaunded whereof our Sauiour Christe gaue vs example in that fact that God graunt we may obserue the outwarde ceremonie he commanded not to be obserued of any but that which was signified thereby ▪ And whereas Maister Rastell compareth the receiuing of both kindes by the lay people with that ceremonie of washing of feete to make it seeme that the iustitution of Christ might be altered in the one aswell as in the other he declareth what reuerence or estimation he hath of the institution of Christe For as that ceremonie of washing of feete is and may be altogether omitted as he fantasieth by the authoritie of the Church so not only one kind of the sacrament but both kindes also may be likewise taken away both from the people the priest if it please the Churche of Rome If he denie the conclusion what hath he gayned by the argument of that example Or what hath he proued against this our assertion that nothing is to beleeued without the expresse worde of God conteined in the scriptures SECTIO 3. From the first face of the 19. leafe to the second of the 23. leafe Of the disagreement of the Gospellers Whereas the Bishop had saide that the light of the Gospell is now so mightily and so farre spread abroade that it was to be hoped no man would lightly misse his way as before in time of darkenesse and perish wilfully it offendeth M. Rastel that he should boast of this glorious light of the Gospel which he a most obstinate blinde man will not vouchsafe to see Likewise that he calleth the heresie of Papistrie the darkenesse of the time afore And he would knowe where this glorious light of the Gospell is to be seene Concerning the light of Poperie because the Kingdome of the beaste by Gods iudgement is darkened in these partes of the worlde where he is knowen to sitte which maketh M. Rastel and his complices to gnaw the tonges for anger he is faine to demonstrate the light a farre off beyond the reache of any mans eyes sight among the newe found landes and the wilde Indians conuerted as he saith not by the Protestants but by Popish monkes and Friers Although it were easie to proue that protestantes also haue planted some Churches in those newe founde landes as in Gallia Antartica but what follie were it to boast of that How far and wide the Gospel is spread in Europe he that is so blind that he will not see who can make him acknowledge it Euen Italy Spaine haue yeelded great numbers of Martyrs confessors Al other regions of Europe in a maner at this day haue either vtterly banished Papistry or at lest by publik authoritie giuen libertie to the Gospel as England Ireland Scotland Flanders Holland France Germanie Denmark Bohemia Polonia Hungaria Suetia Gothia c. But M. R. seeing he cannot shewe his Popishe light abroade he wil shewe it in corners of mens harts because as he supposeth there is neuer a citie in which there is not some Papistes and therefore he wil conclude that the Gospel is not mightily and farre spread abroade By which reason he may proue that it neuer was nor shall be mightily spread abroade for euer there haue beene and shal be enimies that will not imbrace it Another reason he would seeme to bring of sixe diuers kindes of Gospellers wheras therere is but one Gospel which is a fond malicious cauill for I can bring more then 16. kinds of Papists which differ in some opinions and ceremonies wheras al the difference he can assigne amongst them that be truly accounted professors of the Gospell is either in one article of the sacrament or else in outward rites and ceremonies which cannot exclude any of them from the possession of the Gospel so long as they al agree in the doctrine of eternal saluation He vrgeth vs as Tertullian did the Marcionistes heretikes of his time to shew the beginnings of our Churches which wee do daily when we approue our doctrine to be grounded vpō the foundation of the Prophets Apostles bringing in no new Gospel as those heretikes did whereof they could not deduce the beginning from the Apostles Euangelistes of christ And whereas he saith we haue no one vndouted true iudge teacher or faith because we read Luther the Doctors old new with iudgement that is because we builde not our faith vppon any one man as they do vpon their proude Pope but vpon Christ his eternall word I answer we haue a most certein faith groūded vpon the teaching of a most holie maister euen the spirite of Christ in his word who is a most vndouted iudge both for wisdome authoritie to determine all controuersies Wheras the Papists building altogether vpō men haue no vndouted iudge teacher or faith not only because al men are liers vnconstant by corrupt nature but also because they cannot agree among themselues whether the Pope or the councel is the superior iudge teacher or rule of faith But M. Ra. as the rest of the Papists do gloryeth much that we haue receiued the gospel frō the Pope whose iudgment in expositiō therof we shold as well receiue as we acknowledge his fidelitie in keeping it without corruption But we vtterly denie that we haue receiued the Gospell from the Pope but rather from the Greeke Churche neither doe we acknowledge any fidelitie of the Pope in keeping of the Gospel whome we accuse of shamefull corrupting the Latine text therof and as for burning of the Books either he could not the same being dispersed into so many copies or he needed not when he persuaded al men that the Gospell had none other sence but that it pleased him to frame vnto it Finally when Pope Leo the tenth accounted the Gospel nothing else but a fable of Christe whiche brought them so great honor and wealth as who seeth not either how reuerently the Pope preserued the Gospell or for what cause he kept it vndestroied Finally M. Rastels prophane iesting of riding post to heauen declareth himselfe to be a right Papist that is to say an Atheist which maketh a scorne of religion and of the hope of the life to come euen as the same
to make no diference betweene matters of substance and matters of circumstance as hee by his Popish sophistrie doth confounde SECTIO 24. From the secoÌ„d face of the 72. leafe to the second face of the 74. leafe wherin he beginneth to speak of adoration of the sacrameÌ„t Where the bishop saith that the olde doctours neuer make mention of adoration of the sacrament maister Rastell saith the argument is both naught and lying Naught because it may bee they vsed it although they neuer spake of it lying because he saith they do speake of it But to aunswere the naughtinesse of the argument I say maister Rastell is both a naughtie and lying gatherer of the bishoppes argument dismembring that which hee ioyneth together thus Christ his Apostels and the primitiue church neuer made mention of adoration of the sacrament therefore is not to bee vsed And concerning the lying supposed I answere that no auncient doctour speaketh one word of adoration of the sacrament as the verye sonne of GOD but either of adoration of Christ in heauen or of worshipping and adoring that is reuerently handling and honouring of the mysteries of Christ and no more of this sacrament then of the other namely baptisme For aunswere to the places he citeth out of Chrysostome Ambrose Augustine I will referre the reader to mine answere vnto the 45.46 47. Chapters of the second booke of Heskins parleament where this question is handled more at large Sauing that which he citeth out of Hom. 83. out of Chrysost. that we are fed with that thing which the Angels do honour which we confesse to be the body of Christ after a spirituall maner yet pertaineth it nothing to adoration of the sacrament And much lesse that he citeth ex Orat. in Philon. That as we entertaine God here so he wil receiue vs there with much glorie Where he speaketh of honouring God and not adoring the sacrament SECTIO 25. in the 74. leafe The Bishop aunswering a place of Augustine saith we must worship Christ where we eate him but we eate him in heauen by faith therefore we must worship him there M. Rastel sayth we eate him on earth also but proofe he bringeth none greater then his owne saying either of reason or authoritie SECTIO 26. From the end of the 74. leafe to the first face of the 79. leafe The Bishop proueth we must seeke Christe in heauen by these reasons Wee must lift vp our heartes wee must seeke those things which are aboue in heauen where Christ is and not the things that are vpon earth where Christ is not Câ—ll 3. And our conuersation is in heauen from whence wee looke for our Sauiour c. Phil. 3. M. Rastel saith the conclusion is inferred madly and miserably bicause these textes do no more disproue Christes body to bee on earth really then they proue our bodies to be in heauen really as in this short example our conuersation is in heauen and yet Paule was on earth in body when he saide this O wise and happie concluder but blinde and blockish interpretour which reasoneth as though the worde Conuersation in Saint Paules saying did signifie presence or being whereas it signifieth franches or libertie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our franches freedom or conuersation is in heauen Where is nowe your madd and miserable conclusion The Bishops arguments therefore on these places stand firme and vnmoueable that Christ is not on earth in body but in heauen where we must seeke him not climbing with ladders as it pleaseth Maister Rastel to scoffe in so graue matters but ascending by faith and affection set on heauenly and spirituall things As for his exposition of Sursian corda howe wholesome it is you may gather by this one note that in the very beginning â–ª he saith that the body of Christe is not onely lying on the altar and caried in mens handes but also broken and diuided The places hee citeth out of Saint Augustine for adoration be aunswered in mine aunswere to Maister Heskins before mentioned SECTIO 27. The Bishop saith that adoration of the sacrament is a newe deuise of Pope Honorius of three hundreth yeares agoe and after him Vibanus the fourth made an holiday of Corpus Christi c. Maister Rastel is angrie that three hundreth yeares should be counted a little while agoe when it is not three score yeares since Luther sprang vp But if Luther haue taught any doctrine that was not receiued in the Church a thousand and fiue hundreth yeares ago we are content it be accounted newe but whatsoeuer may be proued to haue bene taught 1500. yeares agoe must needes be old though Luther be newe and in comparison of that age Honorius and Vrbanus are but yong children But remitting the antiquitie Maister Rastell will stande for the veritie bicause the Popes lacked no counsell Neither by your doctrine needed they any 2. The Vniuersities were not without great schollers Such as those blinde and hereticall times affoorded 3. Religious houses and orders were not destroyed Yea they swarmed with Locustes to maintaine the kingdome of Absaddon 4. The holy Ghost in true Catholikes was inuincible Yea but there were fewe true Catholikes in those days 5. The wicked spirit in heretiques would haue bene venterous Yea the Pope the Archheretique of the world was venterous ynough when he set vp such idolatrie 6. A good man with the daunger of his life would haue spoken the trueth So did many good men which cost them their liues 7. An heretique for fame would not haue passed vpon death what neede an heretique feare death when heresie was so generally receiued that the true Catholikes were condemned and burned for heretiques by the name of Albigenses Waldenses Pauperes de Lugduno and such like which from time to time were persecuted imprisoned and burned for refusing and disalowing such idolatrie and false worshipping These be the worshipfull reasons he hath to proue the veritie of this bread worship which after he hath dilated more at large hee commeth at length to admiration of the seruice of Corpus Christi day made by Thomas Aquinas which hee thinkeh to be so excellent that the very sound and sense of the Anthemnes Respondes and Versicles declare whence they proceeded And I am of the same opinion for the comparing of such thinges to the sacrament as pertaine nothing vnto it declareth that such comparison came from the spirit of man not from the spirite of god As where it is saide 3. Reg 19. That Helias sawe a cake of bread at his head c. And Iob complaineth of the crueltie of his seruants that would haue eaten his flesh Iob. 31. And as for the holiday though it were instituted but of late yeares yet he taketh it sufficient to proue the adoration necessarie which could not be seene in the Church twelue hundreth yeres before or els that holiday should haue bene set vp long before SECTIO 28. The
praescriptionibus aduersus haereticos which is such as hee saieth that euen religion muste agree to it if with anye reason it will bee credited But in deed it is suche as while Tertulian followed too muche hee fell from the Catholike Church to be an heretike The summe of that saying which M. Rast. hath shamefully gesded falsely translated so that it seemeth he hath not red it in Tertulians booke but in some mans notes that hath ioyned together as it were cantles or patches of Tertulians saying the effecte I saie is this That because some heretikes of his time receiued not all the scriptures and those which they did receiue they receiued not whole but by additions and detractions corruptions and wrong expositions they peruerted them to their purpose his iudgement was that against such heretikes the triall was not to bee made by scriptures by which the victorie should either be none or vncertaine or not sure and therefore in as much as they were not agreed what was scripture and how great was the authoritie thereof he thought that the order of disputinge required that these questions shoulde first be decided Vnto whom the Christian faith pertaineth whose are the scriptures of whom and by whom and when and to whom the learning is deliuered by which men are made Christians For where it shall appeare that the trueth of the Christian learning and faith is there shal be the trueth of the scriptures and of the expositions and of all Christian traditions This is the iudgement of Tertulian But seeinge we receiue all the scriptures Canonicall without addition or detraction yea and for the principal articles of our religion wherein we differ from the papistes we receiue the exposition of the most auncient writers both of the Greeke and Latine Churche not bringinge in any newe doctrine but requiring that the olde doctrine may be restored this rule of Tertulian doth not concerne vs Yet are we able to aunswere to all his demaundes without any taryinge and so as it shall satisfie Tertulian or anye man that vnderstandeth him We say that Christian faith pertaineth to true Christians and that the scriptures are theirs also We say also that the learning by which men are made Christians was deliuered of Christ by his Apostles and Euangelistes in the time of the raigne of Tiberius the Emperour first vnto the Iewes and after vnto the Gentiles making one vniuersall Chruch dispersed ouer the whole worlde And the trueth of this Christian learning and faith thus and then deliuered we do hold and mainteine therefore by Tertullians rule the truth of the scriptures and expositions all Christian traditions are with vs the rather because it cannot be proued that we hold any one article of beliefe but the same is conteined in the manifest wordes of the scriptures by which onely it may be tryed what learning Christ deliuered to his Apostles and they to the churches For seeing the memory of man cānot ascende vnto so many hundreth yeares the certeine remembrance must be had out of Records of writings for so much as no writings are either so auncient or so credible as the holy scriptures the trial must be onely by the scriptures notwithstanding Tertullians opinion as Augustine teacheth in many places of his writings against the Donatistes After this discourse vpon Tertullian he addeth sixe articles more falsely pretending that they are the demaundes of Tertullian but altering them into the manner of a challenge where as I haue both set forth and answered Tertullians demaundes according to his owne words and meaning The first is if we can proue by any sufficient and likely argument that we haue any true Christian faith at all among vs for faith saith hee cleaueth vnto authoritie which they can neuer shewe for themselues c In deede suche faith as cleaueth vnto mennes authoritie wee haue none but suche as cleaueth vnto the worde of God as saint Paule saith faith commeth by hearing of the worde of God which is onely true Christian faith wee haue the whole faith of Christians as we do dayly proue not onely by the auctoritie of scriptures but also by the testimony of aunciēt writers agreeable to the same And because he is so impudent to deny that we haue any true Christian faith at all I demaunde of him why hee doth not then rebaptise those that are baptised of vs seing he is persuaded that neither the minister nor the godfathers whose faith according to their doctrin maketh much fo◠baptisme haue any true Christian faith at all The seconde that the scriptures are deliuered vnto vs that we be the right keepers of them is proued by this argument that we be the church of God vnto whome the scriptures and the custodie of them perteineth That wee are the church of God we proue by this argumēt that we beleeue and teach all that and nothing else but that which God by his holy scriptures hath appointed to be beleeued and taught for Christian faith The thirde we knowe from whome wee haue receiued the gospel not from the Papists Namely frō the doctrine of god and his holy spirite from such ministers as were stirred vp of God and lightened with his spirite according to the scriptures and from the books of the Greekes and Hebrues and not of the papists The fourth we knowe by what successours the gospell came vnto vs from God the authour of it euen from the prophets and Apostles Euangelistes pastours and teachers of the church of all ages florishing in sight of the worlde vntill the comming and tyrany of Antichrist had ouerwhelmed all the worlde with darkenesse by whom they were persecuted and driuen into corners according to the prophecie of Christe in the Apocalipse cap. 12. but yet so as they alwayes continued and testified the trueth oftentimes openly protesting against Antichrist vntill nowe at the length the time being come in which Antichrist must be consumed they are againe brought into the sight of the worlde and the kingdome of Antichrist is made obscure ignominious contemptible The fift we knowe at what time the Gospell was first delyuered vnto the Church of the gentiles namely in the reigne of Tiberius in whose time Christ suffered since which time it hath alwayes continued and shall do to the end of the worlde To the sixt wherein he requireth vs to shew the foundatiō of some Church house communion table or booke c. by which it may bee gathered that a true apostolike religion was within the 600. yeares as void of ornamēts ceremonies reuerence distinction of places and dignities sacraments and solemnities perteining to sacraments as ours is I answere our religion hath all sacraments ornaments ceremonies distinction solemnities reuerence necessarie vnto eternall life and therfore to shewe a monument of a religion voide of these it perteineth not to vs Beside that it is a foolishe and vnreasonable demaund for vs to shewe any such monument remaining aboue 900. yeares when by so often
inuasion of enemies and mutation of states as hath fallen in the worlde other monuments could not remain but learned writings out of which we haue often proued our religioÌ„ to be the same that was in the most auncient and purest times of those 600. yeares after Christ. In the conclusion Maister Rastell protesteth vntil the aunswere be deuised that he will continue in that faith which Augustine the Monke receiued of Gregory the great and he of Pelagius Pelagius of Benedictus and so reherseth the Bishops names of Rome vnto Peter who receiued his doctrine of Christ whiche is nothing else but a popish bragge For neither is he nor al the rablement of them able to proue that Christ deliuered to Peter or Peter to Clemens a greate number of articles of doctrine that Augustine deliuered to the Saxons neither that he and his fellow Papists do hold all that doctrine faith which Augustine receiued of Gregory Gregory of Pelagius c. ascending to the heighest For a great number of errours and corruptions haue since that time crept into the Church that neither Augustine nor Gregory euer heard off FINIS D. Heskins D. Fulke Chrys. in 6. Ioâ—â— Hesk. Fulk Leuit. 19. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Gal. 2. Hesk. Fulk Basil. lib. Sp. 5. cap. 27. lib. 7. E. 44. Hom. 44 in Matth. Hesk. Eulk â—n Agge 2. Hesk. Fulk In Matth. H. 44. Heskins Fulke Heskins Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk In Leuit. lib. 2 cap. 8. Hesk. Fulke De coena Domini Hesk. Fulk Heskins Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Serm. de coena Dom. In Leui. lib. 6. Cap. 23. Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Li. 4. de Orthod fid Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Iohn 4. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Libr. 4. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Sermo de oration Dom. Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Ioan. 6. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke In Ioan. 14. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hom. 46. in Ioan. Hesk. Fukle Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Li. 4. ca. 34. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk In Ps. 118. Serm. 18. Here beginneth Oecolampadius Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Hesk. Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk 1. Cor. 10. 11. Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulke Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Fulk Hesk. Hesk. Fulk Sander Fulke Sander Fulk The later church compared with the former Practises Councels One shepeheard A perticular flock Church militant Sander Fulk Sander Fulke Sander Fulk Sander Fulk An. 493 An. 596. Sander Fulke Sander Fulk Sander Fulke Sander Fulk Sander Fulk Sander Fulk Sander Fulk Sander Sander Sander Sander Fulk Con. Nic. 2. Act. 2. Quest. in Her. 8. Sander Fulke Lib. 2. Cap. 19. Sander Fulke Sander Fulk Sander Fulke Sander Fulk Sandeâ— Fulk Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Apoc. 15. Rastel Fulke Rastell Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastle Fulk lib. 10. ca. 15 in Ioan. Rastell Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastell Fulk Rastle Fulk Rastel Fulke Rastel Fulke Rastel Fulk Rastel Fulke Faultes escaped The first number signifieth the page the last the number of the lines Page 6 line 17 me to l. me but to 9 38 title l. little 57 28 conceiue l. concurre 68 28 quo l. quem 73 8 continue l. conteine 90 13 are l. not 114 33 vbique l. vtique 115 30 Hierome l. Herevpon 145 1 diuinitie l. dignitie 171 22 l. adunationeÌ„ 25 adunation 1847 l. GuitmuÌ„dus 202 3 saint l. seÌ„t 237 23 vvhich l. vvith vs 254 37 that l. if 271 25 l. by vvhich 277 19 Catatholia l. Catathetico 287 9 as grossly l. a grosselye 29 8 18 Covvel rave 19 Caulfes l. ravve 367 35 Enconijs l Encaenijs 430 38 could not haue l. could haue 434 21 tvventieth l. thirtieth 439 28 Arrius l. Aerius 443 29 holy l. highe 463 14 this l. his 28 lesse l. better 32 vituspatiuÌ„ l. vitas patruÌ„ 484 37 decree l. deare 502 15 body l. bloud 512 10 our l. an 522 6 petat l. potat 538 13 their l. the 542 21 ancestri l. authoritie 35 iustification l. instruction 343 27 pope l. people 546 9 Sina l. Syria 54 9 Euasius l. Euagrius 35 opportunitie l. importunitie 556 36 Augustus l. Augustulus 557 3 selfe l. like 570 30 variations l. vacations 574 32 tables l. idoles 589 9 Papathium l. Pammachium 590 13 Peter l. Paule 31 autorato l. ancorato 605 31 nor l. vvere vvere l. to be 610 17 three l. their 34 l. him that 616 18 admit l. omit 617 27 an l. and an 625 30 algarus Abgarus 631 23 names l. nunnes 29 Chapter l. Chaire 632 14 emende l. emendo 24 Constantius l. constaÌ„tinus 637 36 this l. his 6417 pavende l. paneade 653 11 vvord l. vvood 656 21 offering l. esteming 665 8 paynted l. printed 621 27 capillorum l. lapillorum 32 l. I here 700 10 Marianatha l. Maran-atha 707 32 iust l. first 708 28 vvhich l. vvith 720 1 l. but that our coÌ„munion 736 7 excepted l. accepted 746 31 such a not l. not such a 746 34 yet l. yea 761 3 33 sauoring l. sovvering 775 11 is of no force l. is not farre of 779 8 readdid call 181 5 guest l. ghost 783 4 any l. an 7 is l. vs 30 reade l. rende 790 33 meaning l. mariage 797 18 vt l. et 798 10 Martianus l. Montanus
corporis Christi Vocaturque ipsa īmolario carnis que sacerdotis manibus fit Christi passio mors crucifixio nō rei veritate sed significāte mysterio The heauenly bread which is the flesh of Christ after a peculiar maner is called the body of Christe when as in very deed it is the sacramēt of the body of christ And euen the oblation of his flesh which is done by the hands of the priest is called the passion death crucifying of Christ not in truth of the thing but in a signifying mysteri Those words which are borrowed out of August into the decrees the glose doth thus vnderstand Coeleste sacraementū quod verè repraesentat Christi carnem dicitur corpus Christi sed impropriè Vnde dicitur suo modo sed non in veritate sed significante mysterio◠Vt sit sensus vocatur corpus Christi id est significat The heauenly sacrament which doth truly represent the flesh of Christ is called the body of Christ but vnproperly Therefore it is saide to be after a peculiar manner but not in truth of the thing but in a signifying mysterie So that the sense is it is called the body of Christe that is it doth signifie the body of Christe If these testimonies that are taken out of the Romish Bishops owne writings decrees and gloses that are so plaine will not satisfie the Papistes that their doctrine of transubstantiation and carnall presence is neither true ancient nor Catholike it is in vaine to spend more wordes with them as with men that are obstinate and will not be satisfied with any truth contrarie to their presumed heresie The one and sixtieth Chapter maketh a recapitulation of that that is done in this worke Seeing this Chapter containeth no argument or authoritie to defend his cause but only rehearseth what he fantasieth that he hath brought in other places throughout all his booke for the maintenance of the same I referre it to the indifferent readers iudgement what I haue done in this breefe confutation of the same And here I conclude this acte of repeale that notwithstanding this bill offered to the Parleament by Tho. Hesk. in the lower house hath many friends so that the greater part of voyces if the house were diuided might seeme to ouercome the better yet for as much as in the higher house the greatest number haue spoken directly against his bill and no one lord of that house which liued within the compasse of 600. yeres of the challenge hath giuen his voyce to allowe it not only the pretensed acte of Parleament set forth by the said Tho. Hesk. is proued to be false forged counterfet but also the bill that he hath put in to be considered is vtterly reiected condemned spurned out of the house GOD BE PRAYSED A CONFVTATION OF AN IDOLATROVS TREATISE OF NICOLAS SANDER Doctor in Diuinitie which mainteyneth the making and honouring of Images by W.F. Doctour in Diuinitie ECCLESIASTIC 45. The memoriall of the beloued of God is blessed that is to say any thing that maketh vs to remember him that is beloued of God is worthie of praise and honour A Doctour like interpretation and a pithy argument whereupon I may conclude The idols that Salomon made are things that make vs remember Salomon who was the beloued of God and so called of God him selfe therefore the idols were worthie of prayse and honour The preface conteining a breefe declaration which is the true Churche Maister Sander taking in hand so absurde and wicked an argument as is the defence of idolatrie or honouring of Images thought good to present it in the best vessel that he had which is the painted boxe of the Churche which that he might the rather commend to his countrimen he hath taken vpon him to describe it both inside and outside as he saith by certeine knowen truethes in number no lesse then 112. which after they haue been all well vewed and sufficiently considered I doubt not but to the reasonable and indifferent Reader shall appeare nothing else but a faire coloured but yet an empty vessell I will followe his diuisions and where I finde any trueth I will confesse it without wrangling where in steede of trueth he offereth falshode I will breefely confute it 1 The first I graunt that Christe hath alwayes had and alwayes shall haue a Church on earth out of which there is no saluation This Churche consisteth of men whiche beleeue in him haue their faith sealed and confirmed by outward sacramentes 2 The Church is the kindome of Christe the Citie of God and the kingdome of heauen wherein Christ shall reigne for euer 3 The kingdome is spread more largely and gouerned more prudently then any earthly kingdome euer was euen to the endes of the worlde to continue world without end 4 Notwithstanding all this to say that the Churche or this kingdome of Christe was hidden any one houre from the eyes of the worlde is not to make it more obscure then any earthly kingdome euer was as Maister Sander doeth affirme for the glorie of this Kingdome whiche is spirituall neuer did nor shall appeare to the wicked of this worlde The Churche is an article of our faith and faith is of those thinges whiche are not seene Hebru 11. but with spirituall eyes Therfore the exaltation of the Lordes hill that Esaie 2. and Micheas 4. doe speake of is of a spirituall aduauncement and a citie built vpon an hill is euerie true minister of Gods worde Matthewe 5. and not the whole Churche Finally the glorie and ioye that Esaie 60. promiseth vnto the Church and her happie enlargement among the nations Cap. 61. proue no worldly pompe or greatnesse to be seene with carnall eyes but is ment of the ioyfull and comfortable addition of the Churche of the Gentiles vnto the Churche of the Iewes For otherwise these wordes could not be verified of all wicked men All that see them shall knowe them that they are the blessed seede which the Lorde hath blessed 5 The cheefe meane whereby the Church is so clearely seene and so glorious in the sight of men is that Christ being the true light hath cōmunicated his brightnesse to his Apostles sayng you are the light of the worlde A citie built vpon an hill can not be hidden Neither do men light a candel and put it vnder a bushel but vpon a candlestick that it may giue light to al them that are in the house But this brightnesse is heauenly and spirituall not worldly and carnall to be seene of the children of light not of the blind bussards of the worlde 6 The Churche dyed not when the Apostles dyed for Bishops and Pastours succeeded in their place as lightes set vpon the candlestickes which are the seuerall Churches Apoc. 1. 7 The light and glorie of Gods Churche commeth chiefely from the Bishops and Pastours thereof I meane from their heauenly doctrine not from their persons as Maister
that blasphemous prayer which they make to the crosse kneeling on their knees O crux aue spes vnica Alhaile O crosse our onely hope M. Sander saith those wordes doe so conuince his blasphemous doctrine that he shall neuer be able to auoide the argument whiche is grounded vpon them You haue need M. Sa. to set a good face on those wordes euen of the same metall that your crosse to whom you speak is oftentimes made But what Herculian argument I pray you do you bring forth Forsooth S. Paul vsed the same phrase when he said God forbid that I should glorie but only in the crosse of Christe But good sir S. Paul speaketh neither to the wodden crosse nor of the signe thereof but of the death of christ And you would make men beleeue that you do so Namely that you say not those wordes to the crosse but to Christ crucified Thus you would couer your shame with impudencie But you cannot so escape for Thomas Aquinas a great Saint and Doctour of your Church 3. Sen. di 9.91 ar 2 q. 4. affirmeth that the crosse of Christ is to be worshipped with the sâ—me Latria or Diuine worshippe that Christ crucified is to be worshipped that euen vnto the crosse you speake when you say all hayle O crosse our onely hope And if you will say this was but one Doctours opinion yet the very wordes of that hymne and the rubrike thereof shall conuince you that you speake to the crosse and not to Christ Beata cuius brachijs preciâ—on pependit sÄ™culi flatera facta est corpori prÄ™damque tulit Tartari Blessed is that crosse on whose armes the price of the worlde did hang it was made a beame to weigh his bodie tooke the pray away from hell Immediately after these words the rubrike biddeth the quire turne to the altar where the crosse standeth as M. Sander saith and then follow these wordes All hayle O crosse our onely hope in this time of passion increase rightehusnesse to godly men giue pardon to guiltie persons By these it is plaine that this prayer is made to the crosse and not to Christ neither is it any thing like to the phrase which S. Paule vseth of glorying in the crosse of Christ. And that Maister Sander neede not to make the matter so straunge of their speaking to the crosse this hymne sung on the exaltation day and so often repeated in Anthemes and Versicles doth sufficiently declare Crux fidelis inter omnes arbor vna nobilis nulla silua talem prosert froÌ„de flore germine dulce lignum dulces clauos dulce pondus sustinens Sola digna tu fuisti ferre precium saeculi atque portum preparare nauta mundo naufrago quem facer cruor perunxit fusus agni Corpore O faithfull crosse the onely noble tree among all no groue bringeth foorth such a tree in leafe in flower in budde bearing that sweet wodde those sweete nayles that sweete weight Thou onely hast beene worthie to beare the price of the world and beeing a mariner to prepare a hauen for the worlde that made shipwracke whiche the holie bloud shed out of the lambes bodie hath annointed What insensible blockes are they that prate thus to and of an insensible stocke But to iustifie the former blasphemous hymne Maister Sander will proue that it was made of olde time either of Hilarie Ambrose Fortunatus Sedulius Prudentius or Gregorie or else he cannot tell of whom or when But what is his reason trow you Marie because it doeth concerne the holy time of Lent and is receiued not onely in England but also in Italie Fraunce and Spaine O inuincible reasons it was not for naught that he bragged that Maister Iewell should neuer be able to auoide the argument that is grounded on these wordes The last writer cited for the worshippe of the crosse is Chrysostome Hom. de adorat cruc saying Hodiernus dies preâ—iosae crucis venerationi constitutus est This day is appointed to the worshipping of the precious crosse Admodum beati ij qui castis labijs sanctoque ore eam vt amplexantur exeunt Very blessed are they that go forth with chaste lippes and holie mouth to kisse it But what a mockerie is this that those wordes whiche this author speaketh allegorically of the spiritual crosse that is to say of the death and redemption of Christ which no man doubteth but with all honor it is to bee imbraced should be drawn to a wooden image of I cannot tel what crosse to be worshipped licked and kissed For it followeth immediatly Re enim vera illud domini verbum implent Si quis me sequi velit seipsum abneges tollatquecrucem suam et me sequatur For they doe in verie deede fulfill that saying of our Lord if any man will follow me let him deny him selfe take vp his crosse follow me And expounding what crosse he meaneth he saith An vt lignum vnusquis quae nostrum ferat certè non Que enim hÄ™c virtus est Sed vt ad pericula instructi simus sanguineÌ„ in animis nostris suum ferentes ad cÄ™dem et mortem quotidie parati ita omnia faciamus vt si ad vesperum nos victuros esse non speraremus What doth he commande euery on of vs to bear a peece of wood No surely For what vertue is that but that we shoulde bee furnished against daungers and carying about his blood in our minds we should be ready to be slaine to die and so do all thinges as if we hoped not to liue vntill the euening Chrysostome also in many other places speaketh magnifically of the crosse but then he meaneth the death and passion of CHRIST he commendeth also the figure of the crosse but yet with out any adoration of it of the crosse he saith in epist. ad Colloss Hom. 3. Deo reconciliauit per seipsum per mortem per crucem Papè quomodo illa rursus commiscuit etenim ne putares vnum esse neque crucem aliquid esse iuxta seipsam per seipsum dicit He hath reconciled vs to God by him selfe by his death by his crosse good lorde how he hath againe ioyned these together for that thou shouldest not thinke that they are one nor that the crosse is any thing by it selfe he saith by himselfe The signe of the crosse he calleth the signe of death to put the people in remeÌ„brance not only of the death of Christ but also of their own suffring patience So farre he was of from setting vp the signe of the crosse to be adored or kneeled vnto that grosse idolatrie had not preuailed in his time nor long after THE XIIII OR XIII CHAP. That other holy images both might be adored profitably and without Iewish bondage by S. Augustines owne doctrine and also were adored within the first sixe hundreth yeares after Christe with a defence of S. Chrisostomes liturgie against M. Iewell Also that the generall doctrine of
S. Augustine concerninge figures is applyed to Images Images were made without all scruple in the primitiue Church Bowing to the image of Christ in S. Chrisostoms â—ime His liturgie is defended Seuerus painted the images of S. Martine and Paulinus in a holy place S. Gregorie laye prostrate before an holy Image Saint Augustine is cited De doct Christian. lib. 3. cap. 9. Qui aut operatur aut veneratur c. He that worketh or reuerenceth M. Sander translateth worshippeth a profitable signe instituted by gods authority whose strength and signification he vnderstandeth doeth not reuerence or worshippe that which he seeth and passeth away but rather that thing whereunto all suche thinges are to be referred First I note the corruptioÌ„ of Master Sanders translation that turneth Veneratur worshippeth after the popishe meaninge For God did neuer institute any signe to be worshipped in that sense which Master Sander defendeth worshippinge of Images But all signes instituted of God are to be reuerently esteemed regarded as baptisme which we do reuerently esteeme yet we worship not either the water or the action of baptizing Secondly we haue to consider how Master Sander can proue images to be profitable signes instituted by gods authoritie They be profitable saith hee because they bring vs in remembraunce of good thinges I denie this argument because nothing is profitable in religion but that which is instituted by God for otherwise we might bring the gallowes into the Church whiche bringeth vs in remembraunce of Gods Iustice c. as I haue shewed before Likewise the Prophet Abacuc vtterly denyeth Images to be profitable Cap. 2. vers 18. But let vs see how he proueth popishe images to be instituted by Gods authoritie which is al in al for if that be proued we wil not doubt of the profitablenesse of them First he alledgeth the imitation of nature and of nations the institution of some images in the law of Moses last of all the tradition left to his Church freely to make images of good things The former reasons are answered before in their proper chapters namely the lawe of nature and nations cap. 11. the making of some images in Moyses lawe cap 12. also the example of practise of this supposed tradition out of Eusebius cap. 10. And they are all three wiped away with the expresse commaundement of God in his lawe of religion Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image or the likenesse of any thing c. Neuerthelesse let vs see how by tradition left to the Churche images are prooued to be instituted by god We reade saith hee in S. Augustine as well of the Ethnikes as of the Christians There is first one falshood for Augustine in the place by him cited speaketh onely of Ethnikes De consen Euang. lib. 1. cap. 10. which because they had seene Christes image pictured with Peter and Paule imagined that Christ had written bookes to Peter and Paule Secondly he citeth the wordes thus Pluribus locis simul Petrum et Paulum cuÌ„ Christo pictos viderunt quiae merita Petri Pauli etiam propter cundem passionis diem celebrius ac solemniter Roma commendat They sawe in verie many places Peter Paule painted together with Christ because Rome doeth set foorth the merites of Peter and Paule the more famously and solemnly euen for that they suffered both vppon one day In this allegation hee addeth wordes that are not in Augustine Although not contrary to his meaning yet shewing thereby that he borrowed this place as manye of our Englishe papistes doe commonly of some other mans noting rather then of his owne reading But the greatest fault of all is that he doth deceiptfully suppresse the words following immediatly which declare howe profitable Sainte Augustine esteemed the doctrine of Images to be His whole sentence is this Credo quod pluribus locis simul eos cum illo pictos viderunt quia merita Petri Pauli etiam propter cundem passionis diem celebrius solemniter Roma commendat Sic omnino errare meruerunt qui Christum Apostolos eius non in sanctis codicibus sed in pictis parietibus quaesierunt I beleeue that they haue seene them painted with him in manye places because Rome doeth more notably and solemnely set foorth the worthinesse of Peter and Paule euen because of the same day of their suffering So they were altogether worthy to be deceiued whiche haue sought Christ and his Apostles not in the holy bookes but in painted walles Now see with what honestie Master Sander hath alledged this place of Augustine to prooue that images are of Gods institution But you will saye perhappes this place doeth prooue that Images of Christe and his Apostles were then made by Christians I graunte but not in the Churches for then the Ethnikes coulde not haue seene them because they were neuer suffered to enter into the Churches of the Christians But Gregorie Nyssen in his Oration De Theod. martyr laud. testyfieth that the paynter had set foorth the whole storie of Theodorus the martyr in his Churche And yet the Image of the martyr was none otherwise painted then the fierce and cruell formes of the tyrauntes neyther otherwise on the walles then on the pauemente For he saith Capillorum item concinnator historiae par opuâ— in pauimento quod pedibus calcatur effecit Also the pauier hath made the lyke woorke of historie vppon the pauemente whiche is trodden vnder feete These deuises of painters and pauiers Master Sander is faine to take holde of in steede of the holy scriptures and aunciente writers But if hee saye that Gregorius doeth also allowe these I answere as ornamentes of the Churche not as matter of Gods religion and worshippe whiche yet he shoulde rather haue defaced with Epiphanius then suffred or allowed for inconueniencâ— that folowed This report of Gregorie sheweth the errour of that time rather then prooueth images to be instituted by god That Paulinus caused images to bee painted on the Church walles as it is confessed to be done so it is denied to be well done The like I say of the images painted in Saint Martins Church in Towers in Fraunce witnessed by Gregorius Turonensis although it was long after the time of Paulinus in which Satan beganne to lay the platforme for his Idolatrie whiche afterwarde he brought into the worlde And these be all the arguments that he hath to prooue that images are profitable signes instituted by Gods authoritie Except he meane the text of Paul to the Galat. 5. to be an argument whiche he citeth to prooue that we are made free in Christ both to knowe our signes and images to be images and signes and also to knowe whereof they are signes which the Iewes saith he did not So that the libertie of Christ is by M. Sanders doctrine not from a yoke of bondage and seruitude vnto ceremonies but from ignorance and want of knowledge of the vse of them And whereas by the lawe
Bishop saide that for the space of twelue hundreth yeares after Christ this worshipping of the sacrament was neuer knowne nor practised in any place M. Rastel after his courteous manner saith he lyeth for he hath alledged S. Ambrose and S. Augustine before to proue that the sacrament is to be worshipped and now citeth Therdoret Euthymius Emissenus Iames Basil and Chrisostome in their Liturgies for the same purpose But the aunswere is easie to be made none of all these speake of that worshipping or adoration of the sacrament which Pope Honorius commaunded but of honouring reuerencing worshipping or adoring of the sacrament as diuine mysteries which honouring worshipping or adoring we all confesse to be due to the blessed sacramentes not onely to the Lordes supper but also to the sacrament of baptisme For none of all these writers beleeued the carnall presence of Christe in the sacrament which the Papistes hold Saint Augustine denyeth the sacrament to be that body which was crucified in Psal. 98. Saint Ambrose calleth the sacrament the figure of the body and bloud of Christe De sacra lib. 4. cap. 5. Theodorete whose saying hee citeth being flatly against transubstantiation as you may read more at large in mine aunswere to Heskins Lib. 3. cap. 56. calleth in the same Dialogue the sacrament the tokens or signes of the body of Christe And in his first Dialogue he saith The tokens which are seene hee hath honoured with the name of his body and bloud not chaunging their nature but adding grace to their nature His discourse at large is set downe in mine answer to Hes. li. 3. ca. 52. Euthymius in 6. Ioan. saith that the words of Christ must be vnderstod spiritually the sacrameÌ„ts must be considred with inward â—ye â—as mysteries The very wordes of Emissenus which M. Rastel citeth expresse his minde to be of a spirituall presence Beholde with thy faith saith he honour and wonder at the holie bodie and bloud of christ The very name of the gift which is vsed in the liturgie falsely ascribed to Saint Iames declareth that the Author of that liturgie did not beleue it to be the naturall bodie of Christe but a gifte or token in remembraunce thereof The prayer whiche is made in those liturgies falsely ascribed to Chrysostome and Basil at the lifting of the sacrament proueth that they did not beleeue the bread to be chaunged into the bodie of Christ after the wordes of consecration For then they would not haue prayed that God would giue to them the bodie and bloud of his sonne and by them to the people if they had them present before And whereas they all cried Sancta sanctis holy thinges belong to holie men it was not to call the people to worshippe the sacrament which they lifted a little but not ouer their heades to be seene but to charge them that were not baptised to departe and to prepare the rest to the worthie receiuing of the sacrament Maister Rastell so great a Chrysippus and Aristotle of Logike neuerthelesse vseth these argumentes to proue adoration But leauing these he asketh if any within that compasse of 1200. yeares beleeued the sacrament to be the very bodie of Christ and if that be graunted whether the very bodie and bloud of Christ be not to be worshipped and then bringeth in Damascen and Lanfrancus Of the former it may be doubted but very grossely he writeth the other was an enimie of Berengarius 200. yeares before Honorius the Author of this adoration I answere breefely although the carnall presence was receiued two or three hundreth yeares before Pope Honorius yet there can no adoration be proued for at this day the Lutheranes admitte the carnall presence yet they abhorre adoration saying the very bodie of Christe is present to be eaten but not to be worshipped SECTIO 29. From the first face of the 89. leafe to the 93. leafe The Bishop sayde that the schoolemen perceiuing the daunger of idolatrie that was vnto the ignorant people in worshipping the cake if it were not consecrated gaue warning to the people to worship it vnder this condition if it were consecrated M. Ra. like a Doctor determiner cutteth of al the reasons of the schoolemen and saith they were not the best learned that so decide the controuersie For there is no daunger at all vnto the people so long as their intent is to worship God and the bodie of christ Example also he bringeth that if a man honour him which is not his father in steede of his father because all the parishe saith he is his father he doeth not amisse In deede if that man doe the duetie of a father to his supposed sonne I thinke the errour is not greatly hurtefull to him that honoureth him as his Father Agayne sayeth Maister Rastell suppose that one were so like thine owne Father whiche is possible ynough that it could not be discerned whiche of the two were thy true father thou werest not to be blamed if thou honour the one in steede of the other I aunswere suppose it were so which is vnlikely ynough I would thinke he were an vnaduised child which would not inquire which of the two were his true father before he chose to honour either of them But Maister Rastel asketh if he should honour no father because he could not discerne the one from the other And I likewise aske him whether hee should honour two men for his father or two fathers in steede of one because he knoweth nor which is his right Father Finally I would aske suche a not profound learned Maister of Arte as Rastel is but such a simple fellowe as Maister Rastell talketh withall in this discourse whether an vnconsecrated cake bee as like the bodie of Christe as one man may be to an other I weene he would say no. But then M. Rastel would take the tale out of his mouth and reply that an vnconsecrated cake and a consecrated be as like as any two men can be But then I would aske him whether any thing wherein they may be counted like is either the thing or the cause or the signe and marke of the thing that is worshipped If not his two cases are as like to these of the sacrament as an aple is like to an oyster SECTIO 30. From the first face of the 93. leafe to the first face of the 98. leafe Three leaues and an halfe of this section are spent in a fonde quarrel of Maister Rastels picking that the Bishop should ascribe that opinion to Dunce and Durande which is not theirs but proper to Thomas of Aquine against which they reason But for al his impudent shamelesse rayling charging the Bishop with lying it is Rastel himselfe which is the lyer and the slaunderer for that whiche the Bishoppe speaketh generally of the schoolemen he draweth maliciously vnto Dunce and Durande Thomas holdeth that transubstantiation is necessarie or else the Churche should committe idolatrie in falling downe