substance of our bodies must consist of Arcidentes The popish sorte call vs Sacramentaries that is to say such as doe abolish the force vse of the Sacrament If our doctrine did ouerthrow the Analogie of the Sacrament is theirs doth we might iustly be called Sacramentaries TransubstaÌ„tiatioÌ„ was borne in yâ— coâ—cel of Laterane in the yeere of our Lord 1215. Obiection Christ said at the institution of the holy supper Math. chap. 26. ver 26. This is my body therefore the substance of the bread is changed into the body of Christ Answere This argument hangs together like saÌ„d c. If Christ wheÌ„ he reached bread vnto his Apostles did giue his body really substantially to be eaten of them then had Christ many reall substaÌ„tial bodies at in one the selfe same time place which is a grosse absurditie I confesse that Christes speech this is my body when he had giuen the bread to his Apostles is a very true speech If it be a true speech it must bee true either properly and literally or figuratiuely If it be true properly literally then whatsoeuer may bee saide of Christes body as that it was borne of the blessed virgine suffered dyed rose againe c may be applied to the brend in the Sacramente whatsoeuer may be said of the bread as that it was sowen reaped threshed baked c may bee likewise applied to Christes bodie which no man that feareth God can admit If Christs speech be vnderstanded literally he did commaunde a foule and haynous thing which is sufficient to proue it a figuratiue speech Leb 3. cap. 16 de doct Chri. according to Augustines rule If any doe aske me what I take to be the true meaning of Christes words This is my body My aunswere is that they are notably expounded by S. Paule when he saith the bread which we breake 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. is it not the partaking of the body of Christ Question If Christ be not bodily present in the sacrameÌ„t what do Gods childreÌ„ receiue wheÌ„ they are partakers of the holy supper Answere They receiue the food of life immortality they eate life drink life when the sacrament is reached vnto them they receiue as bread wine for the nourishing of their bodies so the body bloud of the Lord Iesus for the most comfortable nourishing of their soules If any either drowned in Popery or inclined to it shall peruse this which I haue written I referre him for his further instruction to a notable treatise of Christs body and bloud writteÌ„ by Bertram vnto the Emperour Charles the great This Bertrame was both a Priest and a Monke and liued in the yeare of our Lord 840. 11 The wicked doe not eate Christes bodie in the Sacrament Christ cannot be separated from his spirite which spirite of Christ because the wicked haue not they caÌ„not be partakers of Christ Hee that eateth Christ shall liue by Christ Iohn chap. 6. verse 57. Iohn chap. 6. ver 56. Iohn chap. 15 ver 5. the wicked shal not liue by Christ He that eateth my flesh drinketh my bloud abideth in me I in him The wicked doe not abide in Christ because they bring not forth much fruite The meate of the soule is not eaten of theÌ„ which haue not the mouth of the foule Cyprian writes that the wicked doe licke the rocke De coena Domini but that they sucke from thence neyther hony nor oyle because they are quickned neither with any sweetnes of charity nor with any moysture of the holy spirit besides that they neyther iudge themselues nor discerne the sacraments For further proofe of this poynt I referre the learned reader to Cyprians treatise of the holy Supper Question Whosoeuer shall eate this bread drinke the cup of the Lord vnworthely 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 27. shall be guiltie of the bodie and bloud of the Lord. The wicked are guiltie of the bodie bloud of the Lord therefore the wicked doe eate the bodie drinke the bloud of the Lorde Answeare The argument folowes not and the wicked are guilty of the body bloud of the Lorde because they eate drinke vnworthely the bread wine which are sacrameÌ„ts of the body and bloud of the Lorde For the iniury done to the Sacramentall signes reacheth to the thinges which are signified by them If the princes cloth of estate be abused it is a grosse fault and the iniury reacheth to the person of the Prince Obiection The wicked man is guiltie of the Lords body because hee discerneth not the Lords body 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 29. therefore by eating Christes body he is guilty Answere The argument followes not for not to discerne the Lords body is to make no difference betweene the sacrament of Christes body coÌ„mon meate to abuse it which is a grosse sinne being committed against the sacrament reacheth vnto Christes body it selfe 12 Christes bodie is note uery where The Apostle Peter saith that heauen must containe Christ vntil the time that all things be restored Act. chap 3. ver 21. that is to say vntill Christes second comming The Angels say that Christ is taken vp into heauen c. Acts chap. 1. ver 11. If he be taken vp into heauen touching his body which must needs be the meaning of the Angels wordes how is Christes bodye in many places at once If Christs body be in many places at once then Christs body is infinit if it be infinite then Christes humanity is eyther abolished of made infinite by being turned into the godhead which are grosse heresies fauour the moÌ„strous opinioÌ„s of Eutiches SchweÌ„kfeldins Obiection The diuinity humanity are vnited in Christ therefore where the godhead is the maÌ„hood is likewise but the godhead is euery where therefore the manhood is euery where Answeare The person of Christ is but one and yet in doth so coÌ„sist of two natures that the proprieties of ech nature doeth must remayne whole without confusion to their seuerall natures For to deny or confounde the proprieties Lib. 4. cont Eutish is to confounde the natures Vigilius saith that Christ is contayned in a place by the nature of his fleshe and is not contayned in a place by the nature of his godhead Epist 57. ad Dardanum Augustine is very pleÌ„tifull flat for this point in one of his epistles I confesse that the proprieties of Christes maÌ„hood may be applied to his godhead contrarimise that the proprieties of his godhead may bee applied to his maÌ„hood but yet without coÌ„fouÌ„ding the natures as for exaÌ„ple Christes passion doth pertaine to his flesh according to the proprietie of nature and if pertaynes to the worde that is to saye Christes godhead according to the person Vigil lib. 2. cont Eutich because there is one and the selfe same person both of the worde and
6. therfore it is as vnlawfull to giue vnto them the Sacramēts which are the seales of the worde Philip the Emperor offered himselfe to be partaker of the prayers in a publicke assemblie Euseb lib. 6. chap. 34. the gouernour of that Church refused to admit him vntill by confession of his sinnes he satisfied the Church and had ioyned himselfe to the penitentiaries in the face of the cōgregation The Emperor according to his duetie yeelded his obedience most willingly If the Emperour was repelled for a time from the publike prayers it is a cleare case that hee shoulde not at that time haue bin admitted to the holy Sacrament The Emperour Theodosius after that he had defiled himself with shedding innocent blood in the citie of Thessalonica Theod. lib. 5. cha 17. 18 was not admitted by Ambrose the Bishop of Mediolanum either to enter into the Church or to present him selfe to the partaking of the holy Sacrament vntill Theodosius by a notable confession of his sinne had satisfied and reconciled himselfe to the Churche of God 6 The signe must not be confounded with the thing signified in the Sacrifice For not eueryone that receiueth the signe is partaker of the thing signified This is cleare in Simon Magus for Baptisme and in the traytour Iudas for the Lords Supper The water of Baptisme is one thing the blood of Christ signified by the water is another thing The water purgeth our bodyes Christes blood purgeth our soules without partaking of Baptisme so that contempt be absent we may be saued without Christs blood we can neuer be saued The bread of the Sacrament is one thing the body of Christ is another the breade entereth onely into the bodily mouth Christes fleshe entreth onely into the soule without eating the bread of the sacrament so that contempt bee absēt we may be saued without eating of Christes flesh we can neuer be saued It is a miserable bondage of the soule Aug. de doct Christ lib. 5. cap. 5. to take the signes in the Sacramēts for the thinges signified by them I confesse that the name of the thing signified is giuē sometime to the signe Gene. cha 17 verse 10. Circumcision is sayde to bee the couenant betweene God Abraham when notwithstanding it was not the couenant but the signe of Gods couenant The Lambe is called the Lords Passeouer Exod. cha 1◠verse 11. but the Lambe was not the passage it selfe of the Israelites out of Egypt but remembred vnto them the benefite of that great deliuerāce of theirs out of Egypt The bread in the Lordes Supper is called the body of Christe Aug. contra Adimant cap. 12. but it was onely a figure and signe of Christs body yet the worthy receiuer which bringes fayth and repentaunce with him to the Lords Supper is partaker as of the bread and the wine so of the bodye and blood of the Lorde Iesus 7 The Sacramentes are not to bee esteemed better for the worthinesse of the minister or the woorse for his vnworthines Iesus Christ him selfe baptised not but his disciples Iohn chap. 4. verse 2. Iohn chap. 4. ver 1. and chap. 3. verse 22. and yet the baptisme ministred by the disciples was Christes Baptisme If that be Christes baptisme which is ministred by man whatsoeuer the minister be baptisme still remaines to be Christes baptisme Wee are baptised in the name not of any creature but of the holy Trinitie Cypr. de bapt Christi therefore whether Iudas or Paule doe baptize Christ doth wash and put away our sinnes As golde is gold of whom soeuer it be giuen or receiued so is the Sacrament alwayes a Sacrament whether it be giuē to vs by good or bad ministers The Sacramentes are Gods ordinance mans lewdnesse can not peruert the nature of Gods ordinance The Anabaptistes in our time doe thinke that baptisme is defiled by the lewdnesse of the minister The Donatistes in Augustins time did esteeme of the worthinesse of the Sacrament by the worthinesse of the minister These are grosse and palpable errours It is a cleare trueth in diuinitie that the Sacramentes are neyther better nor woorse for the goodnesse or the badnesse of the ministers yet vnlearned and lewde ministers must eyther labor to bee better furnished with learning and honesty for the good of the Church or els be remooued to the lesse hurte of the Church 8 The Sacramentall signes offer grace vnto all but doe not of their own nature conferre grace vnto all that doe receyue them Many haue been partakers of the Sacramentes which notwithstanding were very vngracious Many of the Iewes receiued Circumcision of the fleshe without Circumcision of the heart Simon Magus receyued Baptisme but not regeneration Audas receyued the breade of the supper but not the body of Christ The Sacramentes do bring to passe that which they doe figure Aug. de bapt paruulo onely in the elect We neyther doe nor may attribute forgiuenes of sinnes to the externall element otherwise then instrumentally We must by no meanes say that grace is contayned essentially in the Sacraments as water in a vessell or as medicine in a boxe but the Sacraments are saide to containe grace because they besignes of grace It is a certaine trueth that the Sacramentes doe alwayes retayne their nature Tit chap. 3. verse 5. 1. Cor. cha 10 verse 16. Baptisme is a lauer of regeneration The Lordes Supper is the communion of Christes body blood though no sparke of faith remayned in the world but we receiue not the grace which is offered by y◠Sacraments vnlesse we bring fayth to the partaking of the Sacramentes If any aske me why the infantes of the faithfull which haue not fayth are presented to baptisme I answere that though they haue not fayth yet they are vnder Gods couenant wherof Baptisme is to vs a sure warrant and confirmation Obiection The Church is clensed by the washing of water through the worde Ephe chap. 2. verse 26. therefore Baptisme doth conferre saluation Answere The Apostle ioynes together the worde of life and the washing of water as if he shoulde say by the Gospell the message of our washing and sanctification is deliuered vnto vs and by Baptisme the same message is sealed vp vnto vs. 9 Why almightie God woulde haue the externall signes in the Sacraments to consiste of very simple and vsuall thinges Almightie God woulde haue them consist of most simple and vsual things First that we shoulde not hang vpon or cleaue vnto these earthly thinges but lift vp our heartes vnto the Lorde Secondly least we which incline to much by our corrupt nature to superstition shoulde abuse the outward signes Lastly because hee woulde barre none no not the poorest from beeing partakers of the holy Sacramentes This course did the Lord take in the time of the Iawe they whiche were not able to offer vnto him Leuit. chap. 5. vers 7.11 Oxen Sheepe Lambes c. did offer
priuate to the minister alone When our Sauiour Christ did institute the holy supper commend it to his apostles Math. chap. 26. ver 26.27 he did neither eate drink alone for them nor cōmaunded that one of them shoulde eate and drinke for the rest but he sayde take yee eate yee c. Likewise drinke yee all of this c. 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. The Apostle calleth the cup of blessing c the communion of the bloud of Christ and the bread which wee breake the communion of the bodie of Christ by which wordes it is manifest that the holie Supper must bee no priuate banquet Saint Paule willeth them of Corinth 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 33. when they come together to eate to tarry one for another which words doe euidently condemne all priuate and alone pertaking of this holye Sacrament If any saye that Paules wordes proue not my purpose because they are to be refered to the Corinthian loue feastes my answere is that the Apostles wordes doe make greatly for my purpose though it were as they fay because the feasts of Corinth were ioyned with the celebration of the holie communion In the time of Iustinus Martyr al that were present in the holie assembly did cōmunicate Apol 2 pro Christ Priuate Masses as yet were neither borne nor conceiued c. 8 Gods people must not bee barred from the cup in the Lordes Supper Christ at the first institution of the holy Supper said drinke ye al of this Math. chap. 26. ver 27. c. If the papists say that Christ spake vnto the Apostles onely my answere is that they may as wel barre Gods people from the bread of the Sacrament because onely the Apostles were partakers of the bread as well as of the cup at the institution of the Supper Let a man examine himselfe 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 28. and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this cup c. Saint Paule ioynes the bread and cup together how then dare any man make a diuorce betweene the bread and the cup Saint Paule speaketh to the whole body of the Church howe dare anye man presume to barre Gods people from the cup and to restrayne it to the popish priestes The breaking of the bread and distributing of the cup to the communicants are essential parts of the holy supper therfore may not be omitted or altred In Iustinus Martyres tyme after cōsecration of the bread and cup Apol. 2. pro Christ both bread and cup were distributed to the communicants In Cyprians Ambroses and Chrisostomes time Cyp. lib. 1. Epist 2. Theodoritus lib. 5. cap. 18. Chrysost in cap. 8. epist 2. ad Corinth Hom. 18. Gods people were partakers of the cup in the Lords supper Innocentius the 3. was the first that shut Gods people frō the cup in the Lordes supper He did this strāge fact in the Laterane councell in the yeare of our Lorde 1215. 9 What consecration is Consecration is a dedicating to the holy vse of the supper of so much bread wine as shal be occupied in the celebration of the holy communiō and neither more nor lesse Cōsecratiō stādeth not in the abolishing of natures but in the conuerting of the naturall elemēts into a godly vse This is cleere in both the sacramēts whē the minister hath added the word of institutiō to the water it is no more common water but baptisme which is a Sacramēt of our Regeneratiō Whē he hath done the like to the elemēts of bread wine it is no more cōmon bread common wyne but the sacrament of the body bloud of Christ Iesus yet the substaunce of water is not abolished in baptisme nor the substance of bread and wine in the Lords supper If anie say that the meate which is set on the table at dinner supper 1. Tim. chap. 4. ver 5. is dedicated to a godly vse when it is sanctified by the worde of God prayer I grāt it to be so but there is another signification of that then of this in the sacramēt We obtaine by the word of God prayer the lawful vse of Gods creatures at our dinners suppers that if any iot of Gods first curse vpō the earth and fruites thereof remained it shal not be hurtfull to vs but the elemēts signes in the sacraments become more excellēt things by many degrees for by Gods worde institution they are made signes mysteries of our saluation 10 The substance of bread and wine remaine in the Lordes Supper after the words of Consecration The bread which we breake in the Lords supper 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. is it not the partaking of the body of Christ Saint Paule doeth expressely call that which is broken bread not the Accidents of bread I will not hence forth drinke of this fruite of the vine c. by the fruite of the Mat. cha 26 ver 29. vine our Sauiour Christ meaneth wyne not the accidentes of wyne By Accidents of bread wine are vnderstāded the colour roundnes breadth tast c. of bread and wyne The worde of institution is added to the Element and it is made a Sacrament Tract 80. in Iohan. Augustine saith not that it taketh away or expelleth the element Tertullian calles that bread by which Christ represented his bodie Tertul. lib. 1. cont Mar. The same Tertullian labouring to prooue that Christ had not a fantasticall body as the Heretique Marcion imagined but a true body reasons thus frō the sacramēt Christ did giue bread in the sacrament for a true figure of his body lib. 4. cont Mar. therefore Christ had not a fantasticall but a true bodie If no substance of bread remayne in the Lordes Supper which the Papistes hold Tertullians argument against Marcion were verye weake and Marcions monstrous opinion were very strong If we say that Christes bodie is made of the substance of bread how is it true that his body was made of the substāce of the blessed virgin There must be alwayes an Analogie betweene the signe and the thing fignified in the sacrament The Analogie in the holy supper appeareth in ferding The body bloud of Christ doth feed our soules the bread and wine doeth feed our bodies If the substāce of bread wine bee abolished what is left to feede our bodies If the popish sort say that the Accidēts of bread wine doe feede vs they teach strange both diuinitie and philosophie straunge diuinitie because they are manifestly confuted by Christ and Paule straunge philosphie Math. chap. 26. verse 26. 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 17. Arist cap. 5. de sensu sensili because they reuiue an olde and grosse errour of the Pithagoreans confuted long agoe by Aristotle Besides the Philosophers teach vs that wee consist of the same thinges wherewith we are nourished If we be fedd and nourished with Accidents the
the flesh so that whole Christ both God man suffered according to the vnity of persō but suffered not according to the propretie of nature that is to say of his godhead According to this I haue set downe Acts. chap. 20. ver 28. 1. Cor. chap. 2. ver 8. are Saint Paules words in the Actes and to the Corinthians to be vnderstanded The councell of Constantinople did decree that the blessed Virgine shoulde bee called the mother of GOD. We doe allowe that decree of the councell and yet we neither doe nor may thinke that the virgine Mary did heare Christies Godhead in hir wombe but the meaning is that he whiche was horne of the blessed virgine was not onely man but for the coniunction of the word to the fleshe God and man 13. The bread and wine in the Lords Supper must not bee reserued for any superstitious vse It was not lawfull to keepe any part of the Paschall lambe Exod. cha 12 verse 10. Exod cap. 16. verse 19.20 It was not lawfull to reserue of the Manna That which was reserued was full of wormes and did stinke Our Sauiour Christ at the institution administration of the holy Supper Mat. chap. 26. verse 26. commaunded his disciples to take and eate not to take and reserue it Cyprian writes that the Sacrament was receiued Decoena Domini but not shut vp and reserued I confesse that the Sacrament in olde time was reserued De lapsis lib. 6. chap. 44. Cyprian writeth that a certaine woman had it in her chiest Eusebius saith out of Dionifius that a priest had it in his chamber where hee deliuered it to Serapions boy to carried to Serapion which was then at the poynt of death But this relerning of the Sacrament was a strange abuse and therefore afterwarde was iustly abolished The reseruing and hanging vp of the Sacrament as the Papistes call it in a Pixe vnder a Canopie hath no light in Gods booke to shewe it by and before the time of Innocentins the fourth it was neyther an article of our fayth nor any lawe of the Church that Christians shoulde worship the breade wine in the Sacrament much lesse giue diuine honour to a wafer cake after that the action of the Sacrament is ended if that the Popish Sacrament of the Altar might be accompted a sacrament 14 Howe Gods chyldren must behaue themselues at and after the receiuing of the holy Supper In the time of the administration of the holy Supper wee must vse our eares and eyes very reuerently our eares in attending to Gods trueth and the holy institution of the Supper our eyes in beholding the holy misteries set vpon the Lordes table When the Sacrament is reached vnto vs wee are weightely to consider that as the bread and wine is broken and powred out in the holy supper for our vse so Christs bodye and blood which was giuen and shed on the crosse for perfiting the precious woorke of our redemption is giuen vnto vs to be the food of our soules and for this inestimable benefite wee must confesse our selues to be greatly and deeply bouns to our mercifull Sauiour by his grace giue vp our selues wholie to his prayse and seruice After that our soules are fedd at the Lordes table and that wee are graft into Christ as into a flourishing vine and ioyned to the faithfull as to goodly branches of this vine wee must liue Christianly not a day or two but al our life time first in beating downe our pride vanitie secondly in doing good to our brethren Lastly in keeping the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peare These graces if we doearnestly pray for to almightie God hee will giue them vnto vs in mercie for his greater glorie our singular comfort through Iesus Christ Amen FINIS Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinttee by Thomas Dawson for George Byshoppe 1582.