bodie cannot be the soule because it cannot be a spirite or els if it be conuerted into spirit it is no more a bodie as also the spirite is no more the spirite if it be conuerted into bodie The like is of the bodie and of the soule of Iesus Christe and of his diuine and humaine nature of the which euery one of them holdeth so continually his proprieties that the one cannot be that which the other is For albeit that they be vnited together by personall vnion yet for all that they remaine alway distinct in their vnitie according to their proprieties and not confused in sort that the one cannot be the other wherefore we may not say at all that the diuinitie is the humanitie or that the humanitie is the diuinitie nor that the one is conuerted into the other For if there were such a conuersion they should no more be that which they are but should be chaunged into other natures which thing cannot be For God can neuer be but God Wherefore he can not be conuerted into man but he may well vnite man to him selfe as he hath done in the person of his sonne Iesus Christ In likewise man can not be conuerted into God forsomuch as he is a creature that God which is the creator of all cannot be created but is without beginning as he is without end and infinite the which thing can not agree with any creature From whence it foloweth that the Goddes which are created and that haue had any beginning are no Goddes at all but are onely creatures or else illusions And as the substaunce of God cannot be conuerted into that of man nor that of man into that of God for otherwise God should not be God nor man should not be man at all Euen so neyther the one nor the other may be without his conuenient and naturall proprieties For if the humaine nature haue the proprieties belonging to the diuine nature it is no more humaine nature but diuine In like sort if the body and the bloud of Iesus Christ haue the natural proprieties which doe belong to the bread and to the wine as they haue indeed if they haue their qualities accidents these same effects they are not at all the body and the bloud of him but bread and wine remayning alwaies in their substance with their accidents Chapter v. That the doctrine of transsubstanciatiō doth ouerthrow a great parte of the Articles of the faith and Christian religion concerning the worke of the redemptiō wrought by Iesus Christ THen euen as the transsubstanciators doe abolish from the supper the true signes of the same by their transsubstanciation euen so doe they take away the thinges signified by them to wit the body and bloud of Iesus Christ in asmuch as they transfigure them into an other nature spoyling them of their bodyly proprieties in such sort that they are no more a very body nor a very bloud forsomuch as they haue not their naturall proprieties but haue those of the bread and of the wine which should represent them and should not be the thing it selfe the which they should signifie And by the same ineane they ouerthrowe all the Articles of our faith touching the incarnation of Iesus Christ and his conception and natiuitie his death resurrection and ascension into heauen for if he haue such a body as they attribute vnto him in their masse and supper it is not a true humayne body in asmuch as it hath no thing at all of that which is required in a true humayne body but onely that which is proper and naturall to the bread if it be so that the bread be conuerted into the same From whence it foloweth nyther that it is not the same very body which was conceyued and borne of the virgine Mary and which died rose againe and went vp into heauen or else if it be the same very body it was neuer a true body neyther in the conception and natiuitie nor in the death resurrection and ascension or else it was afterwarde chaunged eyther into an imaginatiue body or into a spirite or into God in sort that it is become infinite as God and that it is euery where in his proper essence and substance as God or at the least that it is in many places at one instaunt and that it hath no one qualitie nor quantitie agreeable to a humayne bodie The which things can in no wise agree with the nature of a true body And that which I do say of the doctrine of the transsubstanciators may be also said of that of the consubstanciators who albeit they doe condenme transsubstanciation as we do yet for al that they doe constitute a corporall presence of the body and of the bloud of Iesus Christ with the bread and with the wine in the supper which is not greatly different from that of the transsubstanciators and draweth after it as many absurdities concerning the proprieties of the humaine nature of Iesus Christ Chapter vi That the doctrine aswell of the transsubstanciators as also of the consubstanciators hath no certayne foundation vpon the wordes of Iesus Christ and for what causes and of the chiefe different which is betweene them and vs touching the presence of Iesus Christ in the Supper IT may not then bee that the transsubstantiatours nor also the cōsubstantiacors may bragge and glorye as they do that they haue the expressed worde of Iesus Christe who sayd This is my body and that their faith of transsubstantiation or consubstantiation is grounded vpon the expressed and certaine worde of god For seeing that their faith doth ouerthrowe the true faith of the principall articles of the Christian doctrine and religion which are very plaine throughly certaine it followeth then in deede that it can not be a true faith as touching that point and by consequent it cannot bee builded vpon the word of god For they may not bragge to haue it in their fauour if they do not take it in his true sense without the which it is no more the worde of God but it is disguised and ouerthrowen Now it appeareth euidently that it is taken in an other then his owne true sense when it is taken in such a sense as ouerthroweth the principal articles of the Christian faith which are not grounded vpon any passage of the holy scriptures that is not well vnderstoode but vpon so many testimonies of the Prophetes and of the Apostles and so plaine and euident that there may remaine no ambiguitie or doubt to those which do beleeue the diuine letters The which thing can not bee saide of the doctrine of transsubstantiation nor of consubstantiation which haue no other ground but vpon a wrong and euill vnderstanding exposition of the wordes of Iesus Christe the which doth plainely and manifestly appeare to bee contrary to the true sense of the same for so much as it is impossible to agree it
is compared to the stocke of the vine and his disciples to the braunches ioyned to the stocke and they which are not at al graffed nor ioyned together with him are cōpared to the braunches that are cut off from the stocke And therefore that this benefit is represented and communicated vnto vs by Baptisme and howe wee doe put off the olde man and put on the newe Saint Paul saieth that by Baptisme wee are dead and buried with Iesus Christ into his death and risen againe with him and planted and graffed and incorporated into him and that all those which are baptized haue put on Iesus Christ And thus much concerning the benefite of regeneratiō and of baptisme which is the Sacrament and testimonie thereof whereby the Lorde witnesseth vnto vs howe that he doeth renewe and regenerate vs in his sonne Iesus Christe into a newe life and doth refourme vs to his image by the vertue of his holy spirite and doth adopte vs by the spirit of adoption and doth aduowe and receiue vs for his children into his house which is his Church For the which cause we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Thus much concerning the nature and faults and very apparant to those which vnderstand what sacraments are and doe knowe the nature of them and also that of the body and of the bloud of Iesus Christ and of the vnion and the distinction of his diuine humaine natures in the person of him The first is touching the maner of expounding the sacramentall wordes of the supper The 2. concerning the signes of the same and the abolishing of them The 3. cōcerning the thinges that they signifie For the first they giue to the sacramentall woordes by Iesus Christ pronounced in the Supper an exposition altogether newe and strange which cannot in any wise agree with any kind of sacramētal speach that is in al the holy scripture like vnto that which Iesus Christ hath vsed in the Supper For first of a sacramentall proposition they wil make a natural proposition By meane whereof they haue already ouerthrowne the nature of the Sacraments For if I say of the bread of the Supper This bread is the body of Christ there is no apparance to take it naturally so as when I say Iesus Christ is man and Iesus Christ is God but this proposition must be taken sacramentally forsomuch as we must alwaies take the signification of the termes wordes which men doe vse according to the matter whereof men speake the nature of the same Wherfore if mē speake of natural things the wordes must be taken naturally but if men speake of spirituall and sacramentall thinges they must be vnderstoode spiritually and sacramentally If there be then sundry sortes of sacramental speaches in the scripture like to that which Iesus Christ did vse in the Supper there is no reason to take them in one sense in some sacraments and in an other cleane contrary in some others for so much as the matter is alwaies sacramentall and the maners of speache alwaies like And on the other side it is a great fault to take the wordes in their proper and naturall signification when they should be vnderstoode by figure and that the meaning of them cannot be true otherwise as they ought to bee vnderstoode chiefly for two causes in the speache of Iesus Christ in the Supper which woordes are at this day in controuersie The first is because that al other maners of sacramental speaches like vnto this may not be otherwise vnderstoode nor also diuers others which resemble them The other is that if they be expounded otherwise there followe infinite absurdities the which do sufficiently declare that such an exposition may not agree with the meaning of the wordes of the Lorde And that which more is on which side soeuer the transsubstantiatours their adherentes may turne them selues they can neuer in any wise expounde these woordes according to the very sense that they would giue them but that they will bee constrayned to acknowledge and receyue some figure as I haue very amply declared all these matters in diuers other bookes I say further also that they shall not bee able to finde in all the holy Scriptures any maner of speach which carieth with it transsubstanciation and conuersion of one substance into an other like to that that Iesus Christ hath vsed in his supper Wherfore is it then that they will here disguise and transsorme the language of the holy Ghost by a new exposition whereof they haue neither testimonie nor example in the whole scriptures namely in the matter of sacraments where they haue many to the contrarie For albeit they say they will take the wordes of Iesus Christe simply and according to the letter Yet for all that they doe it not when they doe expounde the meaning of them according to their doctrine For Iesus Christe hath not spoken that which they say by their exposition Chapter ii Of the abolishing of the signes of the Supper and of the things signified by them and consequently of all the sacrament by the Romaine Transsubstanciation THe other fault which is cōcerning the signes confisteth in that that by their exposition whereby they would establish transsubstanciation they doe abolish the material signes of the supper conuerting them into the thing which they signifie or at least they do confounde them both together whereas they should be distinguished the one from the other For euen as a sacrament cannot be a true sacrament without the woord of God no more can it be without material signes which are ioyned to that word as seales thereof Now if the substance of bread and wine were transsubstanciate and conuerted into that of the body and of the bloud of Iesus Christ there should be there no more bread nor wine by consequent there should be no more materiall signes forasmuch as there is none other but the bread and the wine From whence it should also folowe that there should be at all no sacrament And so willing to conuert the signes into the thing which they signifie they haue neyther the one nor the other For in abolishing the signes they abolish also the thyng which should be signified by them For it can not bee there offered nor communicated sacramentally as it ought to be set foorth and communicated if the meanes be taken awaye which the Lord hath ordayned to make vs partakers thereof And for to alleadge that the signes doe alwaies remayne signes albeit that they be conuerted into the thing which they should signifie because that their accidents do alwayes remaine whole the which do there remayne for signes that is not to satisfie the question and the difficultie but to make it yet greater For as the accidents may not be without substaunce no more may they be accidentes of substances if they be not agreeable to their
no more then they can of their fayth onely God excepted which knoweth the heartes Wherefore either they put them selues in daunger to bee idolaters according to their owne very doctrine worshipping the bread and the wyne in steade of the body and of the blood of Iesus Christe or els they must needes worship them with condition the which can not bee voyde of doubt From whence it followeth that it can not bee in fayth but onely in opinion and by consequence it is sinne seeing that whatsoeuer is not of fayth and without the same can not please God but is sinne Chapter viii Of the diuision of the signes of the Supper and of the Sursum corda of the Masse and of the signification of the same and whereunto it serueth at this present ANd on the other side seing that the Lord hath ordeined 2. signes in this sacramēt the one may not be separated from the other but that his ordinance is there violated and ouerthrowen contrary to his intent and his expressed commandement Now so it is that the wine appointed to be that signe of the bloud is separated from the bread which is appointed to be the signe of the body not onely when the bread is reserued in their pixtes boxes all alone without the wine but also in their supper which they administer beside their masse to them whome they call the Lay people From whence it foloweth that this bread is not at all the sacrament of the supper for so much as it is not applied to his true vse according to the intent and expresse commandement of Iesus Christ but cleane contrary And if it be not a sacrament of the supper it can not be an other sacrament For Iesus Christ hath not instituted any other to that which he hath appointed the bread for a signe but only this And if it be not at all a sacrament how may it be the body of Iesus Christ Iesus Christ him selfe God and man yea in so many places at one instant as there be boxes pixtes cupbordes and caskets in the which this bread is reserued and kept as a relique Therefore I would gladly that the transsubstantiators and Romaine doctors should well consider in all their worshippings that they doe to this bread bee it in their masses or in their pixtes cupbordes and boxes or in their processions to what purpose a litle before they do lift it vp in their masse to cause it to be worshipped they say and sing Lift vp your heartes which is as much to say Sursum corda For it is an exhortation to the Christian people taken of the true ancient Churche whereby the ministers did admonishe them which should cōmunicate at the supper not to stay them selues and rest vpon the visible signes of the same but that they should lifte vp their heartes and their mindes on high to heauenly and diuine things represented by them and to the Lorde which only can communicate those things and will bee serued and worshipped in spirit and truth as he him selfe witnesseth and not in visible and corruptible things nor in things base and earthly For if the time be come that he will not be any more worshipped either in Ierusalem or in the mountaine no more will hee be worshipped betweene the handes of the Romaine priestes nor in their masses and boxes cupbordes pixtes and caskets For that cause after that this exhortation Sursum corda was giuen to all the assistantes they answered Habemus ad dominum which is to saye we haue them vp to the Lorde to witte the heartes the which they were exhorted to lift vp on high Note For the same was spoken in a tongue vnderstoode of al. But to what purpose serueth it now to sing in the masse Sursum corda before the poore people and the ignorant which knowe not what men saye vnto thē neither do they vnderstand at al the exhortation which is giuen vnto them for so much as it is deliuered in Latin and not in their owne language And although that it were deliuered vnto them in their owne language saying Lift vp your heartes on high it coulde not serue them but onely to make them lift them vp to the handes of the priestes which holde and lift vp their hostie and their cuppe euen as hye as their pixtes boxes wherin they holde their holy hostie inclosed no hygher at all For seeing that they doe teache them there to seeke God Iesus Christe our Lorde they neede not to lift their heartes more high to worshyppe him in spirit and trueth but rather that they doe abase them to the earth where they shewe them their visible god whereupon they thinke and rest Wherefore they may very wel boaste thē selues that they haue a god which they see and hee seeth not them But as for vs we knowe no God created nor visible but onely hee which hath created all things and is not him selfe created and which is eternall and inuisible the which doeth very well see vs albeit that we see not him at all for so much as his diuine nature can not bee seene And albeit that hee made him selfe visible in his Sonne Iesus Christe in whome hee hath declared him selfe yet for all that Iesus Christ would withdrawe his bodily presence from this visible worlde to the ende that wee shoulde not seeke him any more in this base territorie nor in corruptible things but that wee shoulde seeke him in the heauens where hee is at the right hande of the Father to worshippe him there in spirit and trueth For hee will not bee worshipped with any other worshippe then that wherewith hee hath taught vs that God must bee worshipped seeing that hee is the cause for the which hee is worshipped for otherwyse it should not be lawfull to worship him seeing that that honour apperteineth to none but to God onely Chapter ix Of the auncientie of transsubstantiation and of the worshipping and keeping of the holy Romaine hostie and of the feast and procession which is dedicated vnto it LEt them not then finde it straunge if we doe not beleeue thē at all when they say vnto vs Lo here is Christ yea there is Christ behold he is in the wildernesse or in the closets For Iesus Christ doth not giue vs testimonie of such a presence of him in his Churche neither of any such comming of his from heauen but in deede giueth vnto vs one cleane contrary No more may they also alleage vnto vs in this behalf the authoritie of the auncient Church nor of the ancient doctours nor the auncientie of their religion touching such worshipping reseruation and keeping of the bread of their holy hostie For the auncient Church hath at the least continued vpon the point of a thousand and three score yeeres before that the doctrine of transsubstantiation was brought into it receiued and approued by the councel in
in his owne person Wherefore it is as possible that the Christiā people should be fedde spiritually with the body blood of Iesus Christ by the communion which the priest alone maketh in his masse as it is possible that he may be fed bodily with that which the priest dineth with and eateth drinketh all alone Wherefore if the people wil be partakers of the things signified by the signes of the supper they must also be partakers of the worde of the signes of the same which are the meanes whereby God will cōmunicate those things which they doe signifie For as he hath ordeined the meane whereby he will giue entertaine conserue the bodily life euē so hath he done for the conseruation of the spiritual life And therefore seeing that he hath ordeined the ministerie of the word of the sacramēts in respect of the spirituall life he that would haue conserue it without this meane should do as much as if he would liue a bodily life without eating or drinking vsing the meane ordeined of God for the nouriture entertainemēt of the same if there be no such necessitie and let that they both cannot be had For God hath not so tied his graces to external things that he cannot distribute the same without them by his diuine vertue and without externall meanes if it please him prouided that there bee no contempt or rebellion of our part for albeit that he hath made vs subiect thereunto so farre foorth as hee giueth vs the meanes yet for all that he is not subiect as wee are but so farre foorth as it pleaseth him to vse them of his owne free will. And therefore euen as he did nourish extraordinarily supernaturally by his diuine vertue Moyses Elie and Iesus Christ the space of fortie dayes they not receiuing in that time any bodily meate or drinke according to the order of nature euen so may hee nourishe spiritually and communicate his gifts and graces without the ministerie of man ordeined in his Churche if it please him to those which by necessitie are depriued of them notwithstanding that they haue great desire to vse the meanes which he hath ordeined and that they do all their indeuour that they may to haue the true and right vse thereof as if a faithfull man were so holden by necessitie of sicknesse or by captiuitie and prison of tyrantes or by some other like necessitie which hindreth him that he may not participate outwardly For if there were there of his fault and that hee would forbeare for his pleasure and that he would not do his duetie in that behalfe the reason shoulde bee otherwise Chapter .xii. How greatly and how much the more inexcusable the Romaine priestes should be for depriuing the Christian people from the communion of the body and of the blood of the Lorde in their Masses and of his blood in their common Suppers if the doctrine of their transsubstātiation were true ANd if the doctrine of transsubstantiation were true that which I say would fight yet more sharpely against the Romaine priests For seeing that they doe affirme that the bread and the wine which are the signes of the supper are conuerted into the very body and blood of Iesus Christ the which they signifie they must also confesse will they or will they not that in depriuing priuing the people of these two signes in their masse they doe also depriue them of the bodie of the blood of Iesus Christe and that in their commō supper they depriue them of the blood deliuering to them but they body according to their doctrine for seeing that we must be made flesh of the flesh bones of the bones of Iesus Christ by the communiō which we should haue with him and which is represented vnto vs as well by baptisme as by the supper an other can not be that for vs And by that meane the priests may no more receiue the supper for vs in our name then they may be baptized in our name for vs And therefore Iesus Christ said not that he which should eate his flesh and drinke his blood by vicar lieutenant should haue life in him should be in Iesus Christ and Iesus Christ in him but said openly He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me I in him hath eternall life and I will rayse him vp at the latter day Let the Romaine Catholiques then consider whether their priestes may eate this meate and drinke this drinke rise for all their parochians and for all those which heare and see their masses and whether they will be contented to be so nourished with the flesh and with the blood of Iesus Christe and so to rise at the latter daye in the person of their priestes Chapter .xiii. Of the Sacrifice and of the Communion that the priestes doe administer in their masses as well for the dead as for the liuing THus much concerning the cōmunion which is in the masse and concerning the ninth errour which wee doe blame in the same I will now come to the tenth which is cōcerning that that the priests doe not doaste that they do sacrifice and cōmunicate in their masse only for the liuing but also for the dead affirming that by that meane they doe applie the sacrifice of Iesus Christe and the vertue and the merite of the same as well to the one as to the others For the which cause they saye that they doe deuide their hosties into three partes in their communion of the which they dippe the one into the wine in their challice against the expresse ordinaunce of the Lorde yea and against the very auncient canons For the Lorde did not temper the bread with the wine neither did hee make a soppe in the wine in the institution of the supper neither did he also commaunde to do it And therefore it is written in the auncient canons which forbidde the same that Iesus Christe did distribute the bread apart and the wine apart and that he gaue not the bread nor the morcell tempered to any other then to Iudas which betrayed him and he gaue it not vnto him yet in the Supper but out of the Supper Nowe of these three partes that the priestes make of their hostie in their masse they assigne the one to the liuing and the two others to the dead because that they doe make two sortes to witte the one which are already happy and doe raigne in Paradise and the other which are yet holden in the paines of purgatorie and haue not yet fulfilled their penance nor haue fully satisfied vnto God and by that meane they doe sacrifice and communicate both for the liuing and for the dead all at one tyme as though Iesus Christe had not fully satisfied for all by his sacrifice and as though the ministerie of the woorde and of the Sacramentes were