my body that shall bee giuen for you My flesh is truly meat and my blood is truly drinke the bread that I shall giue you is my flesh for the life of the world and other like sentences of our Savioâ—r I. D. Your second Argument is drawne from the opinion of the ancient Fathers grounded vpon the Scriptures An invincible and irrefragable Argument if you bee able to make it good For who is hee that dares withstand so great Authority as is that of the Fathers backt with Scripture But bragge is a good dogge as they say and it behooueth you to cracke and boast of much least otherwise you be thought to be destitute of all For I will be bold to affirme that neither you nor your author shall ever be able to proue any one of the ancient Fathers whether with Scripture or without to bee of your side in this present point Those that you pretend to make for you wee shall examine as they offer themselues in order And as for grounding their opinion vpon Scripture neither could they doe so seeing they never dreamed of your Reall presence neither doe the particular places by you vouched import any such thing The first place This is my body shall hereafter at large be vnfolded the rest as is already demonstrated speake not a word of the Sacrament but only of Spirituall eating If the Fathers either in their Homilies or Commentaries alledge these words discoursing of the Eucharist it maketh nothing against vs. For seeing Christ is Spiritually eaten not only out of the Sacrament but in it also and Spirituall eating cannot well be expressed but by tearmes borrowed from Bodily eating no marvell if the ancient Fathers speaking of the Sacrament accomodate these words and the rest in the sixt of Iohn thereunto N. N. The Fathers doe not only vrge all the circumstances here specified or signified to proue it to be the true naturall Body of Christ as that it was to be giuen for vs the next day after Christs words were spoken that it was to bee given for the life of the whole world and that it was truly meat and truly Christs flesh but doe adde also divers other circumstances of much efficacy to confirme the same affirming the same more in particular that it is the very Body which was borne of the blessed Virgin the very same Body that suffered on the Crosse. The selfe-same body saith St Chrysostome that was nailed beaten crucified blouded wounded with a speare is receiued by vs in a Sacrament Whereunto St Augustine addeth this particularity that it is the selfe-same that walked here among vs vpon earth As he walked here in earth saith he among vs so the very selfe-same flesh doth he giue to bee eaten and therefore no man eateth that flesh but first adoreth it And Hesychius addeth that hee gaue the selfe-same Body whereof the Angell Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary that it should be conceiued of the Holy Ghost And yet farther It is the same body saith St Chrysostom that the Major or learned men did adore in the manger but thou doest see him saith he not in the manger but on the Altar not in the armes of a woman but in the hands of a Priest The very selfe-same flesh saith St Augustine againe that â—ate at the table in the last supper washed his Disciples feete the very same I say did Christ giue with his owne hands to his Disciples when he said Take eate this is my body c. and so did he beare himselfe in his owne hands which was prophecied of David but fulfilled only by Christ in that supper These are the particularities vsed by the Fathers to declare what Body they meane and can there be any more effectuall Speeches then these I. D. Pliny in one of his Epistles adviseth him that would be a Writer oftentimes to looke backe vnto the title of his Booke and to consider what his drift and purpose is least ere he be aware he step aside and fall vpon things impertinent Which wise and prudent counsell of his had you duly regarded I perswade my selfe you would not haue spoken so little to the purpose as in this section you haue done For out of all these sayings of the Fathers you conclude no more but this that the true naturall flesh of Christ which was borne of the blessed virgin conversed among vs here on earth and suffered on the crosse c. is present in the Sacrament which who denies Certainly none of our side for wee all freely confesse the same together with you So that the difference betwixt you and vs lies not in the thing it selfe but in the Manner nor whether Christ be present but how and in what sort hee is present Two waies say wee he is present Sacramentally Spiritually as is aboue already declared And this Presence wee affirme to be so strait and neere that wee are thereby bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh But the Presence that you maintaine is a Corporalland Locall Presence of the Flesh of Christ vnder the Accidents of Bread and Wine and that by way of Transubstantiation And this is the point which you haue vndertaken to proue out of the Fathers and to which you ought to speake but in this place you performe it not For how doth this follow The Fathers say that true Christ is present Ergo they say he is present Corporally Locally and by way of Transubstantiation Certainly not at all for hee may otherwise be Present namely Sacramentally as wee hold and Spiritually Neither shall your Author with all his wit and skill ever bee able to make good this or the like consequence from the thing to the manner And thus much for answere in generall Particularly St Chrysostome saith the selfe-same Body which was crucified c. is receaued by vs. But how In a Sacrament that is Sacramentally and by Faith Even as in Baptisme we are made partakers of the Blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost not by a Reall presence or Transubstantiation of Water into them but only as St Chrysostome here speaketh in a Sacrament The which comparison I vse the rather because it is the Fathers own who elsewhere saith that it is in the Lords supper as it is in Baptisme wherein by the sensible element of water the gift is bestowed and that which is intelligible to wit regeneration and renovation is performed The Reddition whereof must needs be this that in like manner by the sensible creatures of Bread and Wine the gift is giuen we are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ to the Spirituall nourishment of our soules By which proportion it seemeth that as the one is effected without Transubstantiation so is the other also Your next Author is Saint Augustine who saith that the same Flesh which walked here among vs doth he giue to be eaten True but to bee eaten by Faith not by the mouth For
without Christ are vnprofitable neither can they be fruitfull at any time but onely in Christ who alone is the Substance and Foundation of them all Wherevpon I conclude that those ancient Sacraments of the Iewes directly looked vnto Christs and prefigured him but were not properly Figures of ours No were What say you then to the Fathers who affirme they were I say two things first that their Authoritie is not a sufficient ground to build our Faith vpon as we haue elsewhere shewed at large For it is but Humane testimonie and argueth as your owne Thomas saith not necessarily but only probably Neither is it reason seeing your selues so often sleight and reiect it even in those points wherein many times they consent that you should so peremptorily vrge it vpon vs and binde vs absolutely to beleeue all they say I say secondly that the Fathers calling the Sacraments of the old Law Figures of ours meane not that they were bare and naked signes without the truth but that in them the thing signified was more darkly and implicitly shadowed then in ours Or rather that they were Figures corresponding vnto ours in the same sense that the Apostle S. Peter intendeth it when he calleth Baptisme the Antitype of Noahs Arke For vnderstanding whereof you are to knowe that Types or Figures are sometimes compared with that truth or thing whereof they are Samplars as where the Holy place of the Tabernacle is said to bee the Antitype of Heauen figured thereby Sometime with some other Secondary samplar and Figure of the same thing as in this place of Peter where Baptisme is made the Antitype of that deliuerance which befell the Church by the Arke in the generall deluge of waters So that the Arke properly was not ordained to be a Figure of Baptisme but both it and Baptisme represent vnto vs our Salvation from the danger both of sinne and death by Christ Iesus therein mutually respecting and answering one the other The same may you also say of the Cloud and the Passing through the Red sea of Manna and the Rock and all the rest And that thus the Fathers heare one for all who to vse your owne words spake in the sense of them all This Bread saith S. Augustine which came downe from heauen Manna signified this Bread the Altar of God signified They were Sacraments divers in signes but in the thing signified alike Heare the Apostle I would not saith hee haue you ignorant Brethren that all our Fathers were vnder the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized by Moses in the â—loud and in the sea and all eat the same spirituall meat The same spirituall I say but another corporall because they Manna We another thing But the same spirituall that we yet our Fathers not their Fathers to whom wee are like not to whom they were like And hee addeth And they all dranke the same spirituall drink They one thing we another as touching the visible nature yet the selfe same in the signifying spirituall vertue For how the same drinke They dranke saith he of the spirituall Rock following them and the Rock was Christ. Thence the Bread thence the drinke The Rocke Christ in the signe true Christ in the Word Flesh. Thus S. Augustine But if the Fathers serue not your turne you haue the Fathers of the Fathers even Christ himselfe and his holy Apostle S. Paul who both affirme that Manna was an expresse figure of this Sacrament And if Manna why not by the same proportion other Sacraments also Indeed now you dispute not Topically but Apodictically you cannot but prevaile if it be true that you say But what are the words I pray you wherein this may appeare Certainely none at all For neither the one nor the other either expresly or implicitly make it a Figure of this Sacrament but of Christ himselfe and his Flesh. For as for the sixt of Iohn it is cleare that our Saviour speaketh not therein of the Eucharist or of Sacramentall Manducation but only of the Spirituall eating of his Flesh by Faith I saith he am the Bread of life hee that commeth vnto mee shall not hunger and hee that beleeueth in me shall neuer thirst Where although to continue the Allegorie hee might haue said He that eateth me shall not hunger and he that drinketh me shall not thirst yet hee chose rather to vse the words of Comming and Beleeuing to teach vs that hee speaketh not of an Oral eating and drinking by the Mouth but only of a Spirituall by Faith And this is so plaine that Bellarmine himselfe confesseth these words Properly not to belong vnto the Sacrament but to the faith of the Incarnation Againe that Eating is meant without which there is no life Except saith hee yee eat the flesh of the sonne of man and drinke his Blood there is no life in you But without Sacramentall eating a man may haue life in him Spirituall eating therefore is meant And thus also doe sundry of your owne Rabbies vnderstand this place as namely Gabriel Cusan Cajetan Tapper Hesselius Iansenius and others As for that place of S. Paul it is evident that the Apostle putteth no difference betweene the old Sacraments and the New saue only in regard of the externall signes for otherwise he affirmeth the same thing to be Signified and Exhibited in both to wit Christ. And so doth S. Augustine vnderstand it They did eat the same spirituall meat saith he it had sufficed to haue said they did eat a spirituall meat but he saith the same I cannot finde how we should vnderstand the same but the same that wee doe eat And againe Whosoeuer in Manna vnderstand Christ did eat the same spiritual food that we doe But whosoever sought only to fill their bellies of Manna which were the Fathers of the vnfaithfull they haue eaten and are dead so also the same drinke for the Rock was Christ. Therefore they drank the same drinke that we doe but spiritual drink that is which was receiued by Faith not which was drawne in with the Body If happily you stand vpon those words These things are types vnto vs you may knowe that hee saith not they were types of our Sacraments but Examples to vs that we sin not as they did For as they perished in the wildernesse notwithstanding their Sacraments so may we doing as they did notwithstaÌ„ding ours Which argument if that you say be true would be of no force at all For the Corinthians might thus haue replied though their Sacraments availed not them yet ours may vs because ours are Substance theirs but Shadows But enough of the Antecedent Yet before I proceed to the Consequence some of your By-speeches are also to be examined First you say that Bread aud Wine was mysteriously offered to Almighty God by Melchizedeck But both the Original and your Vulgar translation made authenticall by the Councell of Trent
Chrysostome doe proue not only this but the Resurrection also of our Bodies by the truth of Christs Flesh in the Sacrament for that our Flesh ioyning with his Flesh which is immortall shall bee immortall also I. D. The truth of Christs Flesh in the Sacrament and the Coniunction of our Flesh with his Flesh neither is nor ever was by vs denied And therefore to heap vp Fathers for the proofe thereof is but to spend your labour to no purpose That you should proue is the Presence of Christ by Transubstantiation Which hitherto you haue but little aymed at In the Sacrament say these Fathers our Flesh is ioyned to Christs Flesh Ergo our Flesh shall rise againe The Antecedent is true and the sequele is good But what ioyning doe they meane The taking of Christs flesh into the mouth They neuer dreamt of it And if it were so it would follow that all they that eat Christ Sacramentally among whom how many Reprobates are there shall rise againe vnto life everlasting For I hope you will not say that the sacred Flesh of Christ doth quicken any vnto everlasting death How then is it By eating him not only Sacramentally but also spiritually and by Faith For by this meanes Christ becomes the food of our soules which redounding vpon the Flesh by making it the Temple of the Holy Ghost and an instrument of righteousnes fitteth and prepareth it to a glorious Resurrection Hence our Sauiour He that eateth my flesh drinketh my bloud hath life everlasting and I will raise him vp at the last day And the Apostle S. Paul If Christ bee in you the Body indeed is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse But if the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus Christ from the dead dwell in you hee that raised vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you And that this is the meaning of the Fathers appeares by that they say Our bodies come not into corruption but partake of life by being nourished with the body bloud of the Lord. For that our bodies in litterall sense should be nourished with Christs body is to make it the food of the belly not of the minde then which saith Bellarmine nothing can bee deuised more absurd And what I pray you is Nourishment properly Only to take meat into the mouth No but the alteration and conversion of the substance thereof into the substance of that which is nourished which to affirme of the Body of Christ is horrible impiety Of force therefore must the Fathers be vnderstood to speake of such a Nourishment by the body of Christ as is spirituall Now if the Nourishment be spirituall such is the Eating also and it is as absurd to say that the soule is nourished by bodily eating as that the body is nourished by spirituall eating Will you haue all in a word The things that wee eat with our mouth in the Sacramēt are not the causes but the pledges of our Resurrection So saith the great Councell of Nice We must beleeue these things to be the symbols or pledges of our Resurrection N. N. And the same S. Irenaeus doth proue farther that the great God of the old Testament Creator of heauen earth was Christs Father For proofe whereof hee alleageth this reason that Christ in the Sacrament did fulfill the Figures of the old Testament and that in particular wherein bread was a figure of his Flesh which he fulfilled saith Irenaeus making it his Flesh indeed I. D. The Marcionites whom Irenaeus confuteth taught that the God of the old Testament was not the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and that the Creator was knowne but the Father of Christ was vnknowne Against this hee endeauoureth to proue that the Father of our Lord was he who created the world That this he intendeth manifestly appeareth by those words where hee saith Others saying that another besides the creator is his Father and offering vnto him those creatures that are here amongst vs shew that he is greedy and covetous of that which is anothers And among other arguments this he vseth for one Bread and Wine are the creatures of the Creator of the world which creatures Iesus Christ vseth in the Sacrament the one to be his Body and the other to be his Bloud and therein are they offered to his Father Ergo the Creator is his Father Were he not his Father he would never haue takē that which belongs vnto another or whervnto he had no right and convert it to his owne vse So that here your Author hath notably deceaued you For Irenaeus proueth Christ to bee the sonne of the Creator not by his omnipotence in turning Bread and Wine into his Flesh and Bloud a thing that neuer came into his thought but from his right and title to the Creatures which maketh nothing for Transubstantiation Touching the Figures of the old Testament and how they prefigured our Sacraments we haue spoken enough already N. N. What is so sacrilegious saith Optatus Milevitanus as to breake downe scrape and remoue the altars of God on which your selues haue sometimes offered and the members of Christ haue beene borne c. What is an altar but the Seat of the Body and Bloud of Christ And this monstrous villanie of yours is doubled for that you haue brokē also the chalice which did beare the Bloud of Christ himselfe When the mixed chalice and the Bread broken taketh the word of God the Eucharist of the bloud and body of Christ is made Bread receauing the calling of God is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two things one earthly another heavenly the earthly thing is the old forme of bread the heavenly is the body of Christ newly made vnder that forme Let vs now consider also the persons to whom this Commandement was giuen they were those twelue Apostles whom Christ at his last Supper taught the new Oblation of the new Testament giuing them authority by this precept to consecrate to make present and to offer to God his body and bloud I. D. Where little or nothing is objected the answer is soone made Optatus saith that the altar is the seat of Christs body and bloud and that the chalice beareth his bloud Irenaeus saith that after consecration the Eucharist of the body and bloud is made that in it there is a heavenly thing and the Apostles had authority to make present the body of Christ. Ergo the body and bloud of Christ is really corporally locally and by way of Transubstantiation present in the Sacrament A poore and silly consequence which all the wity our author hath wil neuer be able to make good For those words of the Fathers may be salued and verified if Christ be Present any other way And Present hee is Sacramentally to the signes and spiritually to the Faith of
waies First by his profession of conformitie and obedience to his Fathers will whereof wee haue already spoken sufficiently Wherein seeing he fayleth not and it is his Fathers will as we haue shewed that he should giue them eternall life vndoubtedly it is his will also Secondly by giuing himselfe for vs. For if then hee was content with the expence of his dearest blood to ransome vs whē we were his enimies how much more now is it his will pleasure to saue vs hauing of enimies made vs friends and begun the spirituall life in vs Thirdly by conioyning vs vnto himselfe in so straight a bond of vnion that we are of his bone and of his flesh For it may not bee imagined that he hateth his owne flesh but loueth all the members of his body so dearely thas as long as hee is able hee will surely preserue them aliue Fourthly by his mediatory intercession For as he prayed for Peter that his faith might not faile so he intended the same vnto all beleeuers as appeareth in the sequele of this prayer where he saith I pray for them also which shall beleeue in me through their word and requests his Father also to keepe them Which hee would never haue done but that he earnestly desired their preservation in life Fiftly by his care and desire that wee should every way be conformed to him that as he died and rose againe and from thenceforth dieth no more so wee should first dye to sinne and then liue to righteousnesse and afterward spiritually never dye more Lastly by sending vnto vs the holy Ghost to lead vs into all truth to comfort vs and to consecrate vs vnto him both Soules and Bodies FINIS A GODLIE DISCOVRSE OF SELFE-DENIALL OXFORD Printed by I. L. for E. F. 1633. LVKE 9.23 And he said to them all if any will come after me let him deny himselfe and take vp his crosse daily and follow me THese are the words of our blessed Lord Saviour Iesus Christ and they containe in them Counsell of singular importance given vnto all those that purpose to come after him Vpon what occasion it was giuen is not so fully recorded by our Evangelist S. Luke but what is defectiue in him is perfecty supplied by two other Evangelists S. Mathew and S. Marke by Saint Mathew in his sixteenth Chapter by S. Marke in his eighth It was this Our Saviour had signified vnto his Disciples not obscurely and darkly as at other times but in expresse and plaine tearmes that he was ere long to goe vp to Ierusalem and there to suffer many things of the Elders chiefe Priests and Scribes and at length to bee put to death by them Herevpon S. Peter being as the Fathers obserue of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more hot and hastie then the rest of his fellowes presently takes his Master aside consulting only with flesh blood begins to schoole him Master pittie thy selfe this may not be vnto thee But Christ turning about and looking vpon his Disciples first in the hearing of them all sharply rebukes him Get thee behinde me Satan thou art a scandall vnto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that are of men and then addressing his speech as my Text saith vnto them all he giueth them this wholsome and soueraigne Counsel If any of you be disposed to come after mee hee may not with Peter follow his owne carnall reason nor presume by his advise and counsel to guide and direct me nor finally must he timorously and fearefully shrugge and shrinke at the mention of the Crosse no hee must resolue to deny his owne selfe to take vp his Crosse daily and to follow me otherwise it is but in vaine to thinke of comming after me This was the occasion of the Counsell and this is the context and coherence of the words in this history In them it may please you further to obserue with me these three particulars First the Parties to whom the counsell is giuen secondly the forme of words wherein it is deliuered and lastly the counsell it selfe The Parties Hee said vnto them all the forme of words If any will let him the counsell Let him deny himselfe take vp his Crosse daily and follow me In the first yee haue the generalitie of the Counsell He said vnto them all in the second the Liberty of them that are counselled if any will let him in the last the conditionall necessitie of the counsell if any will come after me he must of necessity deny himselfe take vp his cross daily and follow me Of these in order as God shall assist and the time permit The Parties to whom the Counsell is giuen are All He said vnto them all What All All his Disciples as it seemeth by S. Mathew for saith he Then said Iesus vnto his Disciples But S. Mark further affirmeth that hee gaue it to the multitude also When saith hee hee had called the people vnto him together with his disciples hee said vnto them And these are St Lukes All all the Disciples all the People all the present auditory The present auditorie will some say Thē it concernes not vs who were none of that auditorie Yes vs as well as them for although Christ at that time spake only to them that were present yet the holy Evangelists haue written it for vs also Yea it is clear that our Saviour intended it vniversally vnto all men for that which Matthew and Luke deliver hypothetically and conditionally thus if any will come after me let him the same Saint Marke vttereth in a Categoricall and simple forme thus Whosoever will come after mee as if hee should say Every man without exception So that as our Saviour elsewhere said What I say vnto you I say vnto all Watch in like sort is hee to bee vnderstood here that what he spake vnto his auditorie then was generally meant vnto all mankinde if any whatsoever he bee will come after me he must deny himselfe take vp his crosse daily and follow me I haue seene an end of all perfection saith David in his hundred and nineteenth psalme but thy word is exceeding broad Broad as in sundry other respects so especially in this that it stretcheth and reacheth vnto all men There is no speech nor language saith the same David in the nineteenth Psalme where the voice of the Heavens is not heard their line is gone out throughout all the earth their words vnto the end of the world The Sunne which God hath placed therein goeth forth from the end of heauen and compasseth about vnto the ends of it and nothing is hid from the heat thereof This doth the Apostle Saint Paul in his tenth to the Romans apply vnto the word preached by the Apostles plainely implying that no man in the world of what condition soever is priviledged from the authority thereof When God first gaue the law vnto
of it But before we come particularly vnto them we must needs premise a word or two touching the condition and enquire what it is to come after Christ. Among divers interpretations two there are which to me seeme most likely The first is if any will come after me that is if any will be my Disciple Thus S. Luke himselfe seemeth to expound it where speaking in a manner to the same purpose he saith whosoeuer beareth not his crosse and followeth mee cannot bee my Disciple Wherevnto reason also agreeth for Schollers vse not to goe before their Masters but to come after them whence vsually they are called Followers as the Followers of Plato the Followers of Aristotle In this sence then it is as if our Saviour should say If any will be my scholler But hee meanes a scholler not titularlie and in name only like Apothecaries boxes quorum tituli habent remedia pyxides venena which containe in them poisons hauing the titles of remedies but really and truely one that is so indeed and to speake plaine English a â—rue Christian. The second interpretation is if any will come after me that is if any will arriue at that end to the which I am aspiring before him namely eternall glory Neither is this vnlikely for Christ is the author and finisher of our Faith who for the ioy that was set before him endured the crosse despising shame and is set at the right hand of the throne of God Hee by his blood hath consecrated a new and liuing way for vs into the holy of holies whether he is ascended before vs there to prepare mansions for all such as will come after him And in this sense it is as if our Saviour should say if any will come to eternall life and glory after me Now whether of these two sences shall we take I suppose both for first the circumstances of the Text admit both secondly both agree with the analogie of faith thirdly the safest rule is not to straighten but to enlarge the meaning of the holy Ghost as much as may be and lastly what God hath ioyned together let no man put asunder Now no man can bee a Citizen of heauen vnlesse he be a Disciple of Christ here on earth The Schoole of Christ and the kingdome of heaven are contriued like Marcellus two Temples of Vertue and Honour For as none could enter into the Temple of Honour but he must first passe through the Temple of Vertue so neither can any man passe into the kingdome of glory but by the schoole of grace He that will be glorious there must first be gracious here There is no salvation but only by the Mediation of Christ his Mediation stands in his Priesthood Kingdome and Prophecie Hee is not a Priest to one a King to another and a Prophet to a third but he is all three vnto a man or he is none at all vnto him for Christ is not divided Whence it followeth that whosoeuer will be saued Christ must bee a Prophet vnto him and he must be a Disciple vnto Christ. The meaning then of this condition is as if our Saviour more fully and plainely had said If any will be my Disciple and by being my Disciple will come vnto the kingdome of heaven after me Now let vs descend in due order vnto the counsels and consider both the substance and necessity of them First of the first Let him deny himselfe What is that God saith the Apostle is faithfull he cannot deny himselfe that is he cannot say and vnsay for his promises are not Yea and nay but Yea and Amen neither can he say otherwise of himselfe then he is for he is truth it selfe cannot lye Must we thus deny our selues God forbid For then how can we resemble our heavenly Father and be perfect as hee is perfect for he neither doth nor can deny himselfe And seeing Christ is the expresse image of his Father and wee are to be conformed vnto the image of Christ it cannot be that he should advise vs to bee so vnlike either to his Father or himselfe as in this sense to deny our selues No this we leaue to cheating Priests and Iesuits who haue devised a new doctrine of Equivocation and Mentall Reservation If yee aske of a Priest art thou a Priest Hee will confidently and boldly deny himselfe and say I am no Priest reseruing in his minde of Baal or of Apollo which speech and reservation put together make vp they say one entire and true sentence I am no Priest of Baal or Apollo And this is the starting hole which these Foxes haue provided for themselues in the time of danger But O thou thrice blessed Lord and Saviour Christ and O yee blessed and holy Apostles and Martyrs of Christ how simple and ignorant were yee that yee knewe not this doctrine Had you knowne it how easily might you haue avoided those many troubles vexations and torments that yee endured Thou O Christ being demanded whether thou were the Christ mightst readily haue answered I am not with this reservation such as yee looke for yee Apostles and Martyrs of Christ being questioned whether yee were Christians might easily haue replyed we are not reseruing only in your mind such as yee slander vs to be devourers of young children incestuous and the like But the schoole of Machiavel and Loiola was not yet opened and Christians hitherto were trained vp only in the schoole of Christ all were of the minde of that Bishop who as Augustin saith was Firme both in name and deed who being demanded by persecutors for a Christian whom he had hidden answered roundly and without all Equivocation neither is it for a Christian to lie nor for a Bishop to betray a Christian and therefore I will not tell you I feare me when these Deniers of theÌ„selues shall appeare before Christ at the last day mentall reseruation will hardly excuse them and because they would not be knowne to be the Priests of Christ for so they pretend neither will Christ knowe them to bee of his flocke But of this enough being but by the way To Deny then in this place is not litterally and properly to be vnderstood but thus to disclaime to renounce to reiect to despise to make no reckoning and to take no notice of When our Saviour threatneth that hee will deny them before his Father in heauen whosoeuer shall deny him before men what meaneth he but this Hee will renounce them and not owne them for his Even as it is said of Levi to his great honour He said vnto his Father and to his mother I haue not seene him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor knewe his owne that is he regarded them not nor tooke any notice of them But what must wee thus Deny Our selues He saith not Father Mother Brother Sister Wife children Friends Honour Wealth Pleasure and yet these things must be denied too but hee
enough to be numbred among the ancient Fathers In regard whereof as also because of those many shamefull errors and fabulous narrations every where appearing in his writings hee is one of little or no authority in the Church of God He was the first that removed the bounds of the ancient Doctors in this matter bringing in sundry new strange terms never heard of in former times the misvnderstanding of which by little and little prepared a way to that deformed monster of Transubstantiation Neverthelesse it is certaine that howsoever many of his speeches may seeme harsh and inconvenient and great advantage hath beene taken of them that way yet himselfe was cleane of another mind Let vs therefore heare what hee saith It is made saith hee by the Holy Ghost even as our Lord made for himselfe a body out of the Virgin mother If so then is it not made by Transubstantiation for Christ assuming a body turned not his Deity into it Yet was the worke of the Holy Ghost necessary for he alone is able to sanctify the Naturall element and to invest them with Supernaturall graces The same saith he of Baptisme He hath ioyned the Grace of the Holy Ghost to oile and water and hath made it the washing of Regeneration And Leo yet more fully vsing the selfe-same comparison Christ gave vnto water that which he gaue vnto his mother for the power of the most high and over shaddowing of the holy Ghost which made that Mary brought forth the Saviour hath made water to regenerate the beleeuer Whereby you see that the same power of Gods Spirit by which the blessed Virgin conceived may be emploied in a Sacrament without that change and conversion that you imagine of And that Damascen though hee aknowledged a change of the Bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ yet was not acquainted with your change may appeare by these words Because it is the manner of men to eat bread and to drinke wine with water he hath conioyned his divinity with them and made them his body and blood that by vsuall things and which are according to nature we might be setled in these things that are aboue nature Here you see hee conioyneth the Divinity with bread and wine Now coniunction is only of those things that are and haue a being Bread and Wine therefore still are If they be then are they not abolished And if they be not abolished then is Transubstantiation gone Adde herevnto that Accidents without Substance are not Vsuall things nor according to Nature and therefore not they but true bread and true Wine are the things which in Damascens judgement raise vs vp to those things that are aboue Nature But of him enough N. N. The perishing meat and pleasures of this world please me not I long for Gods Bread the heauenly Bread the bread of life which thing is the flesh of Christ the Sonne of God I. D. That Ignatius wrote an Epistle to the Romans both Eusebius and Hierom testify and that this which now passeth vnder that title may be the right Epistle I deny not Howbeit it is confessed of all that those Epistles which are granted to be his are not come vnto our hands perfect For some passages are cited out of them by some of the ancients as Hierom Theodoret and others which now are not found in them and some are manifestly corrupted and depraved as appeareth So that if Baronius and Bellarmine might challenge them of corruption in those places which make for Saint Pauls marriage and against halfe Communions I hope I haue as much liberty to challenge the place by you alleaged if it made any thing against vs. But it needs not for Ignatius speaketh not there of the Sacrament and therefore it maketh nothing to the purpose Neither doth it follow The bread is flesh Ergo by Transubstantiation N. N. We ought so to communicate with our Lords table that wee doubt nothing of the verity of his Body and Bloud seeing he said Except yee eat the Flesh of the Son of man c. I. D. Leo disputeth in this place against the Eutychians who denied the truth of Christs body and thus he argueth The Eucharist is a symboll of the body of Christ Ergo Christ hath a true body and whosoever will rightly communicate must nothing doubt thereof So reasoneth also Theodoret. For Orthodoxus demanding whether Bread and Wine were Symbols of the true body blood of Christ or no and being answered yea he thus concludes If the divine mysteries be samplars of the true body then the body of the Lord is now also true and not changed into the nature of the Divinity Hence may you see the weaknesse of your Argument Communicants may not doubt that Christ hath a true body or if you will that the true body of Christ is in the Eucharist Ergo bread is transubstantiated into body Ridiculous N. N. As therefore our Baptisme is made by reall washing with water and reall renewing of the Holy Ghost so now in the Supper of Christ it behooueth wee bee really fed with the fruit of the tree of life which is none other thing besides the flesh of Christ. I. D. If we yeelded Euthymius vnto you the matter were not great For he liued vpward of eleven hundred yeares after Christ and your owne Chronologers place him after Gratian and Peter Lombard Yet what saith hee It behooueth that in the supper wee be really fed with the flesh of Christ. Really fed Who doubteth of it But you are to know that Reall doth not necessarily import your Carnall manner For Spirituall is also Reall vnlesse you will say a spirit is no thing N. N. It is a remembrance of Christs death by the presence of the body which died It is the Body and Bloud of Christ covered from our eyes revealed to our Faith feeding presently our body and soule to everlasting life I. D. This Nicephorus also liued eleauen hundred yeares after Christ and therefore is none of the Fathers nor of any great authority Neither doth that which hee saith conclude your purpose For Christs Body may bee and is present Sacramentally and to our faith and presently feed both soules and bodies to everlasting life and yet Bread and Wine remaine still in the Sacrament Else where hee calleth the outward Elements symbolls and signes of the Passion of Christ. If symbolls and signes then not the Body it selfe N. N. They receiue not the fruit of Saluation in the eating of the healthfull sacrifice They eat the healthfull Sacrifice which surely is nothing else but the naturall body of Christ but the frute they receiue not As many men take an healthfull medicine but because their bodies bee evill affected it proueth not healthfull to them I. D. Thus you reason The healthfull Sacrifice is the naturall body of Christ Ergo Bread by Transubstantiation is made the body of Christ. How