eatyng of his flesh in forme of bread had this ben his meaning For he left them neuer in any perplexitie or doubt but sought all the wayes by similitudes familiar exaÌ„ples to teath them playnly He neuer spake them so hard a parable but where he perceiued their â—eble ignoraunce anone he helpte them and declared it them Yea and sometymes he preuented their askyng with his owne declaration thinke ye that he did not so here yes verely For he came to teach vs and not to leaue vs in any doubt and ignoraunce especially in the chief pointe of our saluation which staÌ„deth in the belefe in his death for our sinnes Wherefore to put them out of all doubt as concerning this eatyng of his flesh and drinkyng of hys bloud that should giue euerlastyng lyfe where they tooke it for his very body to be eaten with their teeth hee sayd It is the spirite that giueth this lyfe my flesh profiteth nothyng at all to be eaten as ye meane so carnally It is spirituall meate that I heare speake of It is my spirite that draweth the hartes of men to me by faith and so refresheth them ghostly Ye be therefore carnall to thinke that I speake of my flesh to be eaten bodely for so it profiteth you nothing at all How long will ye be without vnderstaÌ„dyng It is my spirite I tell you that giueth lyfe My fleshe profiteth you nothyng to eate it but to beleue that it shal be crucified suffer for the redemption of the world it profiteth And when ye thus beleue then eate ye my fleshe and drinke my bloud that is ye beleue in me to suffer for your sinnes The veritie hath spoken these woordes My flesh profiteth nothyng at all it can not therefore be false For both the Iewes and his Disciples murmured and disputed of hys flesh how it should be eaten and not of the offeryng thereof for our sinnes as Christ ment This therfore is the sure anker to hold vs by agaynst all the obiections of the Papistes for the eatyng of Christes body as they say in forme of bread Christ sayd My flesh profiteth nothyng meaning to eate it bodely This is the key that solueth al their argumentes and openeth the way to shewe vs all their false and abhominable blasphemous lyes vppon Christes wordes and vttereth their sleigh iuggling ouer the bread to mainteine Antichristes kyngdome therewith And thus when Christ had declared it and taught them that it was not the bodely eatyng of his materiall body but the eatyng with the spirite of fayth he added saying The wordes which I here speake vnto you are spirite and lyfe That is to say this matter that I here haue spoken of with so many wordes must be spiritually vnderstand to giue you this life euerlastyng Wherfore the cause why ye vnderstaÌ„d me not is that ye beleue not Here is lo the conclusion of all this Sermon Christ very God and man had set his flesh before them to be receiued with fayth that it should be broken suffer for their sinnes but they could not eate it spiritually bycause they beleued not in him Wherefore many of his Disciples fell froÌ„ him walked no more with him And then he sayd to the twelue Will ye go away to And Symon Peter aunswered Lord to whom shal we go Thou hast the wordes of euerlastyng life and we beleue and are sure that thou art Christ the sonne of the liuyng God Here is it manifest what Peter and his felowes vnderstode by this eatyng and drinkyng of Christ For they were perfitely taught that it stode all in the belefe in Christ as their auÌ„swere here testifieth If this matter had stand vpon so deepe a miracle as our Papistes fayne without any word of God not comprehended vnder any of their common senses that they should eate hys body beyng vnder the forme of bread as long depe thicke and as brode as it hanged vpon the crosse they beyng yet but feble of fayth not confirmed with the holy ghost must here nedes haue woundered stoned and staggerde haue bene more inquisitiue in and of so straunge a matter then they were But they neither doubted nor marueiled nor murmured nor were any thyng offended with this maner of spech as were y t other that slipt away but they aunswered firmely Thou hast the woordes of euerlastyng lyfe and we beleue c. Now to the exposition of the woordes of our Lordes Supper Among the holy Euangelistes writyng the story of Christes Supper Iohn bicause the other three had written it at large did but make a mention thereof in his xiij Chapter Mathew Marke and Luke declaryng it clerely orderly with iust number of wordes With whom Paule agreeth thus writyng vnto the Corinthians Our Lord Iesus yâ—â—ame night he was betrayed he tooke the bread and after he had giuen thankes he brake it saying Take ye it eate it This is my body whiche is for you brokeÌ„ Here is now to be noted the order of this action or act First Christ tooke the bread in his haÌ„des secondaryly he gaue thankes thirdly he brake it fourthly he taught it them saying take it fiftly he had them eate it At last after all this hee sayd This is my body which is for you broken this thyng do ye into the remembraunce of me Here ye see y t this bread was first broken deliuered them and they were coÌ„mauÌ„ded to eate it to ere Christ sayd This is my body And for bicause it is to suppose verely y â— they tooke it at his haÌ„d as he had them and dyd eate it to when they had it in their handes their master whose wordes they did euer obey coÌ„mmauÌ„ding theÌ„ It must needes folow if these be the wordes of the coÌ„secratioÌ„ that they were houseled with vnconsecrated bread or els now eaten or at lest wise part of it ere Christ consecrated it yea it foloweth that it was out of Christes handes and in theyâ— mouthes when Christ consecrated it so to haue consecrated it wheÌ„ it was now in his disciples handes or in their mouthes or rather in theyr bellyes Here it is manifest that Christ consecrated no bread but deliuered it to his Disciples and bad them eate it In somuch that S. Thomas their owne Doctour that made their transubstantiation coÌ„fesseth that some there were that sayd that Christ did first consecrate with other woordes ere he now reachyng the bread to his Disciples sayd This is my body c. And yet calleth he it no heresie so to say Now sith in all this acte and Supper there bee no woordes of consecration but of the deliueryng of the bread broken after thankes giuyng with a commaundement to eate it bryng vs your wordes of coÌ„secration and shewe vs by what woordes God promised you and gaue you power to make his body There is neither commaundement nor yet any wordes left in all the Scripture to make or
when we were not his childreÌ„ but his enemyes Christes disciples sayd to the man where is this gest chamber where I might eate the passing by with my disciples they prepared the passeouer And yet Christ eate not the passeouer but the lambe with his disciples where it is plaine y e signe to do on the name of the thyng At last consider vnto what eude all things tended in that last supper how the figure teached the veritie the shadow the body and how the veritie abolished the figure and the shadow gaue place to the body Loke also with what congruence proportion and similitude both in the action the spech al things were consummate and finished and all to lead vs by such seusible signes from the figure vnto the veritie froÌ„ the flesh vnto the spirite And take thou here this infallible assured saying of Christ neuer to fall fro thy mynde in this last supper do ye this into the remeÌ„brauÌ„ce of me And also of Paul saying So oft as ye shal eate this bread lo this heretike calleth it bread eueÌ„ after the words of the Popes coÌ„secratioÌ„ and drinke of this cup praise declare geue thankes for the death of the Lord vntill he shall come agayne to iudgement RemeÌ„ber thou also what Christ sayd to the carnall Iewes takyng the eatyng of hys flesh and drinkyng of his bloud so carnally aunsweryng them My flesh profiteth not meanyng to eate it bodely but the spirite maketh lyfe And to this set the Prophet Abacukes senteÌ„ce The iust lyueth of his fayth And now Christen reader to put thee cleane out of doubt that Christes body is not here present vnder the forme of bread as the papistes haue mocked vs many a day but in heauen euen as he rose and asceÌ„ded Thou shalt know that he told hys Disciples almost twenty tymes betwene the xiij and xviij chap. of Iohn that he should and would goe hence and leaue this world Where to comfort them agayne for that they were so heauy for his bodely absence he promised to send them hys holy Ghost to be their comforter defender and teacher in whom and by whom he would be present with them and all faithfull vnto the worldes end Hee sayd vnto hys Disciples I goe hence I goe the father I leaue the world and now shall I no more be in the world but ye shall abyde still in the world Father I come to thee Poore men haue ye euer with you but me shall ye not alwayes haue with you And wheÌ„ he ascended vnto heaueÌ„ they did behold hym saw the cloude take hys body out of theyr syght and they fastnyng their eyes after him the two men clothed in white sayd vnto them ye men of Galile wherefore stand ye thus lookyng vp into heauen This is Iesus that is taken vp from you into heauen whiche shall so come agayne euen as ye haue sene him going hence Here I would not More to flitte froÌ„ hys litterall playne sense All these so playne wordes be sufficient I trow to a Christen man to certifie hys conscience that Christ went his way bodely ascendyng into heauen For wheÌ„ he had told his disciples so oft of his bodely departyng from them they were maruelous heauy and sad Vnto whoÌ„ Christ sayd Because I told you that I go hence your hartes are full of heauines If they had not beleued hym to haue spokeÌ„ of his very bodely absence they would neuer haue so mourned for his goyng away And for because they so vnderstode him and he so meane as his wordes sowned He added as he should haue sayd be ye neuer so heauy or how heauely so euer ye take my goyng hence yet do I tell you truth For it is expedient for you that I goe hence For if I should not go hence that comforter should not come vnto you But and if I go hence I shall send him vnto you And agayne in the same chap. I am come from the father and am come into the world and shall leaue the world agayne and go to my father What mistery thinke ye should be in these so manifest woordes Did he speake them in any darke parables Dyd he meane otherwise theÌ„ he spake Dyd he vnderstand by goyng hence so ofteÌ„ repeted to tary here still or dyd he meane by forsakyng and leauyng the world to be but inuisible beyng still in the world with his body No surely For he meant as faithfully as playnly as his wordes sowned and euen so dyd hys Disciples without any more maruelyng vnderstand him For they aunswered him saying Lo now speakest thou apertly neither speakest thou any prouerbe But what a darke prouerbe and subtile ridle had it bene if he had meant by his goyng hence to haue â—aryed here still and by forsakyng the world to abyde still in the world and by his going hence to his father by his very bodely Ascention to be but inuisible Who would intrepret this plaine sentence thus I go hence that is to saye I tary here still I forsake the world and goe to the father that is to say I will be but inuisible and yet here abyde still in the world bodely For as concernyng his Godhead which was euer with the father and in all places at once he neuer spake such woordes of it When Christ sayd his death now was at hand vnto his Disciples now agayneÌ„ I forsake the world and go to my father but ye shall tary still in the world If they will expound by his for sakyng the world to tary here still bodely and to be but inuisible why do they not by lyke exposition interprete the tarying here still of the Disciples at that tyme to be gone hence bodely and to be here visible For Christ dyd set these contraryes one agaynst an other to declare ech other As if to tary here still dyd signifie to the Disciples that they should abyde in the world as it doth in deede then must needes his goyng hence and forsakyng the world signifie his bodely absence as both the wordes playnly lowne Christ meant and they vnderstoode them But in so plaine a matter what neede these wordes Be thou therefore sure Christen reader that Christes glorified body is not in this world but in heauen as he thether ascended in which body he shal come euen as he went gloriously with power and great maiestie to iudge all the world in the last day Be thou therfore assured that he neuer thus iuggled nor mocked hys so dearely beloued Disciples so full of heauynes now for his bodely departyng For if he had so meant as our Papistes haue peruerted hys saying hys Disciples would haue wondered at so straunge maner of spech and he would haue expressed his mynde playnly sith at this tyme hee was so full set to leaue them in no doubt but to comforte them with hys playne and comfortable wordes And if he would haue ben
a state or a degree ordeined of God and an office wherein the husband serueth the wife and the wife the husband It was ordeined for a remedy and to encrease the worlde and for the man to helpe the woman and the woman the man with all loue and kyndnes and not to signifie any promise that euer I heard or redde of in y ◠scripture Therfore ought it not to be called a Sacrament It hath a promise that we sinne not in that state if a man receaue hys wise as a gift geuen to him of God the wife her husband likewise as all maner meates and drinkes haue a promise that we sinne not if we vse them measurably with thankes geuing If they call matrimony a Sacrament because the scripture vseth the similitude of matrimonie to expresse the mariage or wedlocke that is betwene vs and Christ For as a woman though she be neuer so poore yet when she is maried is as rich as her husband euen so we whē we repent and beleue the promises of God in Christ though we be neuer so poore sinners yet are as rich as Christ all his merits are ours with all that he hath If for that cause they call it a sacrament so will I musterde seede leuen a net keyes bread water and a thousand other things which Christ and the Prophetes and all the scripture vse to expresse the kingdome of heauen and Gods worde wythall They prayse wedlocke wyth their mouth and say it is an holy thyng as it is verely but had leuer be sanctified wyth an whore then to come wythin the sanctuary ¶ Of Order SUbdeacon Deacō Priest Byshop Cardinall Patriarch and Pope be names of offices and seruice or should be and not Sacraments There is no promise coupled therwith If they minister their offices truly it is a signe that Christes spirite is in them if not that the deuill is in them Are these all Sacramentes or which one of them Or what thyng in them is that holy signe or Sacrament The shauyng or the annoynting What also is the promise that is signified thereby But what word printeth in them that charact that spirituall seale O dreamers and naturall beastes without the seale of the spirite of God but sealed with the marke of the beast and with cankred consciences There is a word called in Latine Sacerdos in Greeke Hiercus in Hebrue Cohan that is a Minister an officer a sacrificer or a Priest as Aaron was a Priest and sacrificed for the people and was a mediator betwen God them And in the English should it haue had some other name then Priest But Antichrist hath deceaued vs with vnknowen and straūge termes to bring vs into confusion and superstitious blyndnes Of that maner is Christ a Priest for euer and all we Priests thorough hym and neede no more of any such Priest on earth to be a meane for vs vnto god For Christ hath brought vs all into the inner temple within the vayle or forehanging and vnto the mercy stoole of God And hath coupled vs vnto God where we offer euery man for himselfe y e desires petitions of his hart sacrifice and kil the lustes appetits of his flesh with prayer fasting all maner godly liuing An other worde is there in Greeke called Presbiter in latin Senior in englishe an elder and is nothing but an officer to teach and not to be a mediator betwene God and vs. This nedeth no annointing of man They o◠y t olde testament were annointed with oyle to signifie the annointing of Christ and of vs thorough Christ with the holy ghost This wise is no man Priest but he that is chosen saue as in time of necessitie euery parson Christeneth so may euery man teach his wife housholde and the wife her children So in time of neede if I see my brother sinne I may betwene hym and me rebuke him and damne his deede by the lawe of God And may also comfort them that are in dispayre with the promises of God and saue them if they beleue By a Priest then in the new testament vnderstand nothing but an elder to teach the younger and to bring thē vnto the full knowledge and vnderstanding of Christ and to minister the Sacramentes which Christ ordeyned which is also nothyng but to preach Christes promises And by them that geue all their studie to quench the light of truth and to holde the people in darcknes vnderstand the disciples of Sathan and messengers of Antichrist what soeuer names they haue or what soeuer they call themselues And as concerning that our spiritualtie as they will be called make themselues holyer then the lay people and take so great landes and goodes to pray for them and promise them pardons and forgeuenes of sinnes or absolution without preachyng of Christes promises is falsehode and the woorkyng of Antichrist and as I haue sayd the rauenyng of those wolues which Paul Act. xx prophesied should come after hys departyng not sparyng the flocke Their doctrine is that marchaundise wherof Peter speaketh saying through coueteousnes shall they with fayned wordes make marchaundise of you ij Pet. ij And their reasons wherewith they proue their doctrine are as sayth Paul i. Timo. vj. superfluous disputynges arguynges or braulyngs of mē with corrupt mindes and destitute of truth whiche thinke that lucre is godlynes But Christ sayth Math. vij by their frutes shalt thou know them that is by their filthy couetousnes and shamelesse ambition and dronken desire of honor contrary vnto the example doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles Christ sayd to Peter the last Chapter of Iohn Fede my sheepe and not shere thy flocke And Pet. sayth i. Pet. v. Not being Lordes ouer the Parishes but these shere and are become Lordes Paul saith ij Cor. ij Not that we be Lordes ouer your faith but these will be Lordes compel vs to beleue what soeuer they lust without any witnes of Scripture yea cleane contrary to the Scripture whē the opē text rebuketh it Paul sayth it is better to geue thē to receaue Act. xx But these do nothyng in the world but lay snares to katch and receaue what so euer cōmeth as it were the gapyng mouth of hell And. ij Cor. xij I seeke not yours but you but these seeke not you to Christ but yours to thē selues and therfore lest their dedes should be rebuked will not come at the light Neuerthelesse the truth is that we are all equally beloued in Christ and God hath sworne to all indifferently According therfore as euery man beleueth Gods promises longeth for thē and is diligent to pray vnto GOD to fulfill them so is his prayer heard and as good is the prayer of a cobler as of a Cardinall and of a bocher as of a Byshop the blessing of a baker that knoweth the truth is as good as the blessyng of our most holy father the Pope And
in the kyngdome of God Christ nor any felyng therof And who shall take those diseases from them God onely through his mercy for they cā not put of that complection of them selues vntill they be taught to beleue and to fele that it is damnable and to consent vnto the contrary liuing And vnto the second part I aunswere that in respect of God we doe but suffer onely and receaue power to do all our deedes whether we do good or bad as Christ aunswered Pylate that hee could haue no power agaynst him except it were geuen him from aboue and no more could Iudas neither But in respect of y e thing wherin or wherwith we worke and sheade out agayne the power that we haue receaued we woorke actually As the axe doth nothyng in respect of the hād that heweth saue receaue but in respect of the tree that is cut it worketh actually powreth out agayne the power that it hath receaued M. Item that God is author of good and euill as wel of the euill will of Iudas in betraying Christ as of the good will of Christ in sufferyng his passion Tyndall The power wherewith we do good and euill is of God the will is of God As y e power which the murtherer abuseth and wherewith he killeth a man vnrighteously is of God the will wherewith he willeth it But the wickednesse of his wil and crokednesse or frowardnesse wherewith hee sleath vnrighteously to auēge him selfe to satisfie his owne lustes the cause why he knoweth not the law of God and consenteth not to it whiche law should haue informed his will and corrected the crokednesse therof and haue taught him to vse his will his power right is his blindnesses fault onely and not Gods Whiche blindnesse the deuill hath poysoned him with M. Item matrimonie is no Sacramēt Tyndall Matrimonie is a similitude of the kyngdome of heauen as are many thynges mo like as it appeareth by Christ in the Gospell But who institute it to be a Sacrament Or who at his mariage was taught the signification of it Who was euer bound to receaue it in the name of a Sacrament I would to Christes bloud that ye wold make a Sacrament of it vnto all men and women that be maryed and vnto all other and would at euery mariage teach the people to know the benefite of Christ through the similitude of Matrimony And I affirme that in the popes Churche there is no Sacrament For where no signification is there is no Sacrament A signe is no signe vnto him that vnderstādeth nought therby as a spech is no spech vnto him that vnderstādeth it not I would to Christes passion that ye would let them be Sacramentes which Christ institute ordeined for Sacramentes And then if ye make of your own braynes fiue hūdred therto I would not be so greatly greued though I would not geue my consent vnto so great a multitude partly for the bondage and specially lest we should in tyme to come the significations of them lost fall into Idolatrie agayne and make holy workes of them after the exāple of the blindnesse wherin we be now but I would haue the woorde euer liuely preached out of the playne text M. Item that all holy orders bee but mens inuention Tyndall The office of an Apostle Byshop Priest Deacon and Widow are of God But as concerning the shanyng the oylyng and diuersitie of rayment and many degrees sence added therto proue that they be but mens traditions But and ye will make Sacramentes of the oylyng shanyng sheryng and garmentes put their significations vnto them and let the kyngs grace compell them to keepe them and I admitte them for Sacramentes and vntill that tyme I hold them for the false signes of hypocrites M. Itēm that euery man and woman is a Priest and maye consecrate the body of Christ Tyndall In bodyly seruice if the officer appoynted be away euery other person not onely may but also is boūd to helpe at neede euen so much as hys neighbours dogge How much more then ought men to assiste one an other in the health of their soules at al times of nede if the man be away the womā may and is bound to Baptise in tyme of nede by the law of loue which office perteineth vnto the priest onely If she be Lady ouer the greatest ordeined by God that she may Baptise why shuld she not haue power also ouer the lesse to minister the ceremonies whiche the Pope hath added to as his oyle his salt his spitell his candle and cresomcloth And why might she not pray all the prayers except that Idole the pope be greater then the very God if womē had brought a child to Church while the Priest other men taryed the child were in ieoperdy might they not baptise him in the font if there were no other water by And if other water were by yet if that holpe better one mite loue requireth to baptise him therin And then why might not women touch all their other oyle If a woman learned in Christ were driuen vnto an I le where Christ was neuer preached might she not there preach and teach to minister the Sacraments and make officers The case is possible shew thē what should let that she might not loue thy neighbour as thy selfe doth cōpel Nay she may not consecrat Why If the pope loued vs as wel as Christ hee would finde no faulte therewith though a womā at nede ministred that Sacrament if it bee so necessary as ye make it In bodyly wealth he that would haue me one ace lesse then hymselfe loueth me not as well as himselfe how much more ought we to loue one an other in thynges pertainyng vnto the soule M. Item that the host is no sacrifice Tyndall Christ is no more killed It is therfore the Sacrament signe memoriall of that sacrifice wherewith Christ offered his body for our sinnes and commaūded saying this do in the remembraunce of me We be not holpe with any visible deede that the Priest there doth saue in that it putteth vs in remembraunce of Christes death passion for our sinnes As the garmentes and straunge holy gestures helpe vs not but in that they put vs in remembraunce of thyngs that Christ suffered for vs in his passion Euen so the shewyng breakyng and eatyng of the host the shewyng and drinkyng of the cup of Christes bloud and the wordes and the consecration helpe vs not a pinne nor are gods seruice saue onely in that they styrre vp our repentyng fayth to call to mynde the death and passion of Christ for our sinnes And therfore to call it a sacrifice is but abused speach as when we call one that is new come home to breakfast and set a Capon before him and say this is your welcome home meaning yet by that speach that it is but
to consecrate Christes body to bryng it into the bread But there be the wordes of God left in the first chapter of Genesis wherby he made all the world with whiche wordes all be it we yet haue them yet is it denyed vs to make that thyng that he made with theÌ„ Now sith we hauyng his wordes of the creation can not yet make any new creature of nothyng how then shall we without any wordes of consecration and makyng make the maker of all thynges Vnto this action or supper or deliuerauÌ„ce of the bread he added a reason and signification of this signe or Sacrament and what also is the vse therof as though any should aske theÌ„ therafter what Sacrament Religion or rite is this They should aunswere euen in a like maner of spech as it was coÌ„maunded their fathers to make aunswere to their children at the eatyng of the old passeouer wherof this new passeouer was the veritie and that the figure saying When your children aske you what Religion is this ye shal auÌ„swere them It is the sacrifice of the passyng by of the Lord. c. Lo here the lambe that signified and did put them in remembraunce of that passing by in Egypt the Israelites spared and the Egyptians smitten was called in like phrase the selfe thyng that it represented signified and did put them in remembraunce of none otherwise then if Christes Disciples or any man els seyng in that Supper the bread taken thankes giuen the bread broken distributed and eaten should haue asked hym What Sacrament or religion is this He had to aunswere them that Christ sayd This is my body whiche is for you broken This thyng do ye in remembraunce of me that is to say so oft as ye celebrate this Supper giue thankes to me for your redempcioÌ„ In which auÌ„swere he calleth the outward sensible signe or SacrameÌ„t that is the bread with all the other action euen the same thyng that it signifieth representeth and putteth such eaters of the Lordes Supper in remembraunce of For when he sayd which is broken for you euery one of them saw that then it was not his body that was there broken but the bread for as yet he had not suffered but the bread broken was denided in peeces euery one of the twelue takyng and eatyng a peece before hee sayd This is my body c. Now sith M. More will sticke so fast in his litteral sense vpon these wordes This is my body c. Then do I aske hym what thyng hee sheweth vs by this first worde and pronoune demonstratiue Hoc in Englishe this If ye shew vs theÌ„ bread so is the bread Christes body and Christes body the bread which saying in the litterall sense is an hygh heresie after them And for this saying they burned the Lord Cobham Also I aske whether Christ speakyng these wordes This is my body c. had then the bread in his hands wherwith he houseled his Disciples or no That he had it not but had now deliuered it them and had commaunded them to eate it to the order and woordes of the text playnly proue it as is declared before And S. Marke telleth the story also in this order The cuppe taken in his handes after he had giuen thaÌ„kes he gaue it them they all dranke therof And he sayd to them This is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many Here it is manifest that they had all dronken therof first ere he said the wordes of consecration if they be the wordes of any coÌ„secration Besides this if ye be so sworne to the litterall sense in this matter that ye will not in these woordes of Christ This is my body c. admitte in so playne a speche any trope for allegory there is none if ye knew the proper difference of them both whiche euery Grammarian can teach you theÌ„ do I lay before your old eyen and spectacles to Christes wordes spoken of the cup both in Luke and Paul saying this cup is the newe Testament through my bloude which is shed for you Here Christ calleth the wyne in the cup the selfe cuppe whiche euery man knoweth is not the wyne Also hee calleth the cuppe the new Testament and yet was not the cup nor yet the wyne conteined therin the new Testament and yet calleth it the new Testament established confirmed with his bloud here ye see hee called not the cuppe his bloud but the Testament Where is now your litterall sense that ye would â—o fayne frame for your Papistes pleasure If ye will so sore sticke to the letter why do your faction leaue here the plaine letter saying that the letter slayth goyng about the bush with this exposition and circumlocution expoundyng This is my body that is to say this is conuerted turned into my body this bread is transubstantiated into my body How farre lo M. More is this your straunge Thomisticall sense from the flat letter If ye be so addictt to the letter why fray ye the commoÌ„ people from the litteral sense with this bugge tellyng theÌ„ the letter slayeth but there is neither letter nor spirite that may bridle nor hold your stiffe necked heades Also ye shall vnderstand that Christ rebuked the Iewes for theyr litterall sense and carnall vnderstandyng of his spirituall woordes saying My flesh profiteth you nothyng at all to eate it c. And their litteral takyng of his spirituall woordes was the cause of their murmure c. For euen there as also lyke in other places to eate Christes flesh c. after the common phrase of the Scripture is not els theÌ„ to beleue that Christ suffered death shed his bloud for vs. Read ye Paul Our fathers did all eate the same spirituall meate and drinke the same spirituall drinke that we now eate drinke Here I thinke M. More must leaue his litterall sence materiall meate or els deny Paul and deny to that our fathers did eate Christ and drinke his bloud whiche all here Paule sayth for to eate and to drinke this spirituall meate and drinke was as him selfe declareth to eate drinke Christ They dranke of the stone sayth Paule that went with them Whiche stone was Christe And we eate and drinke the very same stone Whiche is nothyng els then to beleue in Christ They beleued in Christ to come we beleue in him comeÌ„ and to haue suffered where is now thinke ye M. Mores litterall sense for the eatyng of Christes material body Our fathers were one and the same Church with vs vnder the same Testament and promise and euen of the same fayth in Christ And euen as they eate him and dranke his bloud euen the same spirituall meate drinke that we do eate and drinke so do we now in the same faith For what elles was signified by this maner of spech our fathers did eate and drinke Christ then that they
nomen religionis seu verum seu falsum coagulari homines possunt nisi signaculorum seu Sacramentorum visibilium consortio colligantur quorum Sacramentorum vis inenarrabiliter valet plurimum Et ideo contempta sacrilegos facit Impie quippe contemnitur sine qua perfici nō potest pietas That is to say Men can not be ioyned into any kynde of religion whether it be true or false except they be knit in felowship by some visible tokens or Sacramentes the power of which Sacramentes is of such efficacie that can not be expressed And therfore it maketh them that despise it to be abhorred for it is wickednes to despise that thyng without whiche godlynes can not be brought to passe Thus it appeareth that necessitie is y ◠first cause For there can no congregation be seuered out of the multitude of men but they must néedes haue a signe tokē Sacrament or common badge by the which they may knowe eche other And there is no difference betwene a signe or a badge and a Sacrament but that the Sacrament signifieth an holy thyng and a signe or a badge doth signifie a wordly thing as S. Austen sayth signes when they are referred to holye thynges are called Sacramentes The second cause of their institution is that they may be a meane to bryng vs vnto fayth and to imprint it the déeper in vs for it doth customably the more moue a man to beleue when he perceiueth the thyng expressed to diuerse senses at once as by example if I promise a mā to mete him at a day appoynted he will somewhat trust my word Notwithstandyng he trusteth not so much vnto it as if I dyd both promise hym with my word and also clap hādes with him or hold vp my finger for he coūteth that this promise is strong and more faythfull then is the bare word because it moueth moe senses For the word doth but onely certifie the thing vnto a mā by the sense of hearyng but whē with my promise immediatly after I hold vp my finger then do I not onely certifie him by the sense of hearing But also by his sight hee perceiueth that that fact confirmeth my word And in the clapyng of handes hee perceiueth both by his sight and féelyng beside the worde that I will fulfill my promise And lykewise it is in this Sacrament Christ promised them that he would geue his body to be slayne for their sinnes And for to establish the fayth of his promise in them he dyd institute the Sacrament which he called his body to the entent that y e very name it selfe might put them in remēbraūce what was ment by it he brake the bread before them signifying vnto them outwardly euen the same thyng that he by his wordes had before protested and euē as his wordes had informed them by their hearyng that he entended so to do so the breaking of that bread informed their eye sight that he would fulfil his promise Then he dyd distribute it amōg them to imprint the matter more déepely in them signifying therby that euen as that bread was deuided among them so should his body frute of his passion be distributed vnto as many as beleued his wordes Finally he caused thē to eate it that nothyng should be lackyng to confirme that necessary point of faith in thē signifiyng therby that as verely as they felt that breade within them so sure should they be of hys body thorough fayth And that euen as that bread doth nourishe the body so doth fayth in hys body breaking nourish the soule vnto euerlasting life This did our mercifull Sauior which knoweth our frailtie and weakenes to establish strēgth their fayth in his body breaking and bloud sheding which is our shoteanker and last refuge without which we should all perishe The third cause of the institution and profit that commeth of it is this They that haue receiued these blessed tydinges and worde of health do loue to publishe this felicitie vnto other men And to geue thanks before the face of the cōgregation vnto their boūteous benefactour and as much as in them is to drawe all people to the praysing of God with thē which thing though it be partly done by the preaching of Gods worde and fruitfull exhortations yet doth that visible token and Sacrament if a man vnderstand what is ment thereby more effectuously worke in them both fayth and thankesgeuing thē doth the bare worde but if a man wot not what it meaneth and séeketh health in the sacrament and outwarde signe thē may he wel be likened vnto a fond fellow which when he is very drye and an honest man shew him an alepole and tell him that there is good ale inough would goe and sucke the alepole trusting to get drinke out of it and so to quench his thyrste Now a wise man will tell him that he playeth the foole for the alepole doth but signifie that there is good ale in the house where y e alepole standeth and wil tell him that he must go neare the house and there he shall finde the drinke and not stand sucking the alepole in vayne for it shall not ease him but rather make him more drie for the alepole doth signifie good ale yet the alepole it self is no good ale neyther is there any good ale in the alepole And likewise it is in all sacramentes For if we vnderstand not what they meane and séeke health in the outwarde signe then we sucke the alepole and labour in vayne But if we do vnderstand y ◠meaning of them then shall we séeke what they signifie and goe to the significations and there shall we finde vndoubted health As to our purpose in this sacrament wherof we speake we must note what it signifieth and there shall we finde our redemption It signifieth that Christes body was broken vpon the crosse to redeme vs from the thraldome of the deuill and that his bloude was shedde for vs to washe away our sinnes Therefore we must runne thether if we will be eased For if we thinke to haue our sinnes forgeuen for eating of the Sacrament or for séeing the Sacrament once a day or for praying vnto it thē surely we sucke the alepole And by thys you may perceiue what profite commeth of those sacraments which eyther haue no significations put vnto them or els when their significations are lost and forgotten For then no doubt they are not commended of God but are rather abhominable for when we knowe not what they meane then séeke we health in the outwarde déede and so are iniurious vnto Christ and his bloud As by example the Sacrifices of the Iewes were well allowed accepted of God as long as they vsed them aright and vnderstoode by thē y ◠death of Christ the sheding of his bloud and that holy oblation offered on the crosse once for euer But when they begun to forget this
also committed Idolatry in déede And therfore S. Paule said vnto thē My deare beloued flée from worshipping of Idols I speake vnto them which haue discretiō Iudge ye what I say Is not y e cup of blessing which we blesse the fellowship of the bloud of Christ Is not the bread which we breake the fellowship of the bodye of Christ For we though we be many are yet one bread and one body in as much as we are partakers of one bread Christ did call him selfe bread and the bread his bodye And here Paule calleth vs bread and the bread our body Now may you not take Paule that he in thys place should directly expound Christes minde And that the very exposition of Christes wordes when he sayd this is my body should be that it was the fellowship of hys body as some say which seeking the key in this place of Paule locke them selues so faste in that they can finde no way out For Christ spake those wordes of his owne body which should be geuen for vs but the fellowship of Christes body or congregation was not geuē for vs. And so he ment not as Paule here sayth but ment his owne bodye For as Paule calleth the bread our body for a certaine propertie euen so doth Christ call it his body for certaine other properties In that y e bread was broken it was Christes owne body signifying that as that bread was broken so should hys body be broken for vs. In that it was distributed vnto hys disciples it was hys owne bodye signifying that as verely as y ◠bread was distributed vnto them so verely should the death of his body and fruit of his passion bee distributed to all faythfull folke In that the bread strengtheneth our bodyes it is hys own body signifying that as our bodyes are strengthened and comforted by bread so are our soules by y t fayth in hys body breaking And likewyse of the wine in that it was so distributed and so comforteth vs and maketh vs mery Furthermore the bread and wine haue an other propertie for the which it is called our body For in that the bread is made one bread of many graines or cornes it is our body signifying that we though we bee many are made one bread that is to say one body And in that the wine is made one wine of many grapes it is our bodye signifying that though we are many yet in Christ through Christ we are made one body members to ech other But in thys thyng Paule and Christ agrée For as Paul calleth the bread our body and vs the bread because of thys propertie that it is made one of many euen so doth Christ call it hys body because of the proporties before rehearsed Furthermore in thys they agrée that as Paules wordes must be taken spiritually for I thinke there is no man so mad as to iudge that the breade is our body in deede although in that propertie it representeth our body euen so must Christes wordes be vnderstand spiritually that in those properties it representeth his very body Now when we come together to receaue thys bread then by the receauing of it in the congregation we doe openly testifie that we all which receaue it are one body professing one God one fayth and one baptisme and that the body of Christ was broken and his bloud shed for remission of our sinnes Now sith we so do we may not company nor fit in the congregation or fellowship of them that offer vnto Idols and eate before thē For as Paule sayth ye cā not drinke the cup of the Lorde and the cup of the deuils ye can not be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of the deuills I would not that you should haue fellowship with deuills The heathen which offered vnto Idolls were the fellowship of deuils not because they eate the deuills body or dranke the deuils bloud but because they beleued put their confidence in the Idoll or deuill as in their God and all that were of that fayth had their ceremonies and gaue hartye thākes to their God with that feast which they kept They came to one place and brought their meate before the Idoll and offered it and with their offering gaue vnto the deuill godly honour And then they sat down and eate the offering together geuing prayse and thankes vnto their God and were one body and one fellowship of y t deuill which they testify by eating of that offering before that idole Now doth S. Paule reprehend the Corinthians for bearyng the gentiles companye in eating before the Idole For they know that the meate was like other meate And therefore thought them selues frée to eate it or leaue it But they perceiued not that that congregregation was the fellowship of deuiles which were there gathered not for the meat sake but for to thanke and prayse the Idole there God in whō they had their confidēce And all that there assembled and dyd there eate and did openly testifie y t they al were one body professing one fayth in their God that Idole So Paule rebuked them for because y t by there eating in that place and fellowship they testefied openly that they were of the deuils body and reioysed in the Idole their God in whō they had fayth and confidence And therfore fayth Paule that they cā not both drinke the cup of the Lord testifying hym to be their God in whom onely they haue trust and affiaunce the cup of the deuill testifiyng y t Idole to bée their God and refuge Here you may note that the meate and the eatyng of it in this place fellowshyp is more theny t cōmon meate and eatyng in other places For elles they myght lawfully haue dronkē the deuils cup with them the one day the cup of the Lord the next day with hys Disciples What was it more verely it was meate which by the eatyng of it in that place and felowship dyd testifie openly vnto all men that he was their God whose cuppe they dranke and before whom they eate in that felowshyp and so in their eating they praysed and honored the idole And therfore they that had their trust in the lyuing God and in the bloud of his sonne Christ might not eate with them And lykewise it is the in sacrament the bread and the eatyng of it in the place and felowshyp where it is receiued is more then common bread What is it more Verely it is bread which by y t eatyng of it in that place and felowshyp doth testifie openly vnto all men that he is our very God whose cup we drinke and before whom we eate in that felowship that we put all our afsiaūce in hym and in the bloud of hys sonne Christ Iesu geuyng God all honour infinite thankes for his great loue wherwith he loued vs as it is testified in the bloud of hys
of Iuye it is a signe and signifieth that there is wine to bee sold And this sacrament signifieth vnto vs and poynteth out before our eyes that as verely as that bread is broken so verely was Christes body broken for our sinnes and as that bread is distributed vnto vs so is his body fruite of hys passion distributed vnto all his faythfull And as the bread comforteth the body so doth y e fayth in Christes death comfort our soules And as surely as we haue that bread and eate it with our mouth and téeth know by our senses that we haue it within vs are partakers therof no more néede we to doubte of hys body and bloude but that thorough fayth wee are as sure of them as we are sure of that bread As it is sufficiently declared in my booke Agayne you may perceyue how wickedly they report on vs which affirme that we dishonour it whiche geue it the right honour that it ought to haue And you doe playnly dishonour it whiche geue vnto it the honor that is onely due vnto God We geue it the same honour that we geue vnto the holy Scripture and word of God because it expresseth vnto our senses the death of our Sauiour and doth more déepely Print it within vs. And therefore we call it an holy Sacrament as we call Gods word holy Scripture And we receiue this Sacrament with great reuerence euen as we reuerently read or heare preached the holy word of God which cōteineth the health of our soules And we graunt that his body is present with the bread as it is with the word and with both it is verely receiued eaten through faith But if we should knéele downe and pray vnto the holy Scripture men might coūt vs fooles might lawfully say that we doe not honour the scripture by that meanes but rather dishonour it For the right honour of a thyng is to vse it for that intent that it was instituted of God And hee that abuseth it to any other purpose doth in déede dishonour it And lykewise it is in the Sacrament which was instituted to kéepe in memory the death of Christ which if we doe any otherwise honour then we doe the holy Scripture vnto y t which we may in no wise make our prayers I say that then we should vtterly dishonour it Auoyde therfore this poynt of Idolatry and all is safe Finally we say that they speake well faythfully whiche say that they goe to the body and receiue the body of Christ and that they speake vilanously and wickedly whiche say that they onely receiue bread or the signe of hys body for in so saying they declare their infidelitie For the faythful will reckon that hée is euill reported of and reputed for a traytour and an other Iudas if mē should say of hym that hée dyd onely receiue the Sacrament and not also the thyng whiche the Sacrament doth signifie For albeit hée onely eateth the bread and sacrament with hys mouth and téeth yet with hys hart and fayth inwardly hée eateth the very thyng it selfe which the Sacramēt outwardly doth represent And of this spryng the maner of speakynges that the olde fathers doe sometyme vse which at the first sight mought séeme contrary to our senses But if they bée well pondered it may soone bée séene how they should be taken For many times when they speake of the Sacramēt and outward eating they apply vnto y e Sacrament and outward eatyng the fruite conditions of the inward eatyng thyng it selse because that in a faythful man they are so ioyntly ioyned that the one is neuer without the other As by example Mary is named the mother of God and yet she is not the mother of hys Godhead by the which part onely he is called God but because she is his mother as touching his māhode the Godhead is so annexed with the māhode that they both make but one person therfore is shée called the mother of God whiche in déede if it bée wisely weyed shalbée founde to bée abused speach And yet neuerthelesse it may very well bée vsed if men vnverstand what is ment thereby but if thorough the vse of this speach men shoulde fall into such an errour that woulde affirme our Ladye to bée in déede the mother of his Godhead thē necessitie should compell vs to make a distinction betwéene the nature of his Godhead and the nature of hys manhode and so to expoūde the matter vnto them and bryng them home agayne into the right vnderstanding As we are now constrayned to doe in this Sacrament because you misconstrue the sayinges of the Scripture Doctours Which notwithstandyng if a man vnderstand them say very well And many such maner of speaches are contayned in the Scripture As where Christ sayth Ioh. 3. There shall noman ascend into heauen but hée that discendeth from heauen the sonne of man which is in heauen This text doth say that the sonne of man was then in heauen when hée spake these wordes vnto Nicodemus here on earth which thing all wise men cōsent to bée vnderstanded propter vnitatem personae That is to say for the vnitie of the person For albeit his godhed was in euery place at that time yet was not his manhode by the which hée was called the sonne of man in heauen at that time And yet Christ sayde that it was in heauen for the vnitie of his person For his Godhed was in heauen and because the Godhed and manhode made but one person therefore it was ascribed vnto y t manhode which was onely verified vppon the Godhed as S. Augustine ad Dardanum doth diligently declare And likewise in the sacrament of Baptisme because the inwarde working of the holy ghost is euer annexed in the faithfull vnto the outwarde ceremony therefore sometime the fruite of the inwarde Baptisme is ascribed vnto the outward worke And so the scripture vseth to speake of the outward baptisme as though it were the inwarde that is to say the sprite of God And therfore S. Paul saith that we are buried with Christ thorough baptisme And yet as S. Augustine expoundeth it y t outward Baptisme doth but signifie this buriall And agayne Paule sayth as many as are baptised haue put Christ vppō them And yet in déede our outward baptisme doth but signifie that wée haue put Christ vppon vs. But by the inwarde baptisme which is the water of life and spirite of God wée haue in déede put him vpon vs liue in him and hée in vs. Which notwithstanding is very false for all the outwarde baptisme in them that receiue it not in fayth And vnto them it is but a bare signe whereof they get no profite but damnation And here you may euidently perceiue how it is sometyme in scripture ascribed vnto the inwarde worke and ceremony which is onely true in the outwarde veritie And this place shall expounde all
Gene. 32. Iohn 6. Papistes are the wresters of Scriptures The Sacramenteâ—… are confirmations to weake consciences Fayth encreaseth by the worthy receiuyng of the Sacramentes Math. 28. Math. 18. Ephe. 3. The olde Doctours vary in their opinion of the SacrameÌ„t In aunswere to them of the second opinion Christ once sacrificed is a sacrifice for euer The doctrine of the Papistes Papistes be agreued with â—uch as consent not to their gâ—osse opiâ—…on Signes coÌ„monly called by the name of thyngs signified therby Note this worthy true argument followyng All the doctors with one accorde call the Sacrament a sacrifice Papistes should be indifferent in iudgementes as Protestants are TransubciatioÌ„ was a worde vsed among the olde Doctours An effectual and good Argument The Pope confirming transubstantiatioÌ„ did purchase hys own gayne to the ouerthrow of the right vse of Christes Sacrament The commoÌ„ persuasion of Papistes Marke 9. Papistes are cruell persecutâ—rs The faithfull are in good state though the wicked iudge the contrary 1. Cor. 13. Phil. 2. Fayth onely iustifieth what it is to say Gene. 32. Gene. 33. Gene. 35. Exod. 12. Exod. 30. Iudi. 10. Iudi. 15. Iudic. 19. 1. Reg. 6. 1. Reg. 7. 3. Reg. 22. Nume 6. Ierem. 7. Ezech. 12. A short and effectuall collection of the former arguments An obiectioÌ„ made by y t Papistes An aunswere to y u former obiection In excelleÌ„t argument 3. Reg. 8. 3. Reg. 8. Math. 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. 1. Cor. 11. A letter of Maister Tyndall to M. â—râ—â—h 1. Pet. 2. 1. Ioh. 5. Math. 5. Rom. 8. Phil. 3. Boldnes of spirite Weunde not conscience Standing vpoÌ„ thinges necessary Death after denying euill spoken of by the aduersaries Obedience of God To looke for no maÌ„s helpe bringeth Gods helpe Conslancie in staÌ„ding Pacience in suffering Bylney Perseueraunce to the end Math. 21. Two Martyrs at Antwerpe Foure martyrs in FlauÌ„ders and one at Luke PersecutioÌ„ at Roâ—ne Fiue Doctours at Paris takeÌ„ for y e Gospell In other Letter of M. Tyndall Hygh questions to be auoyded All deedes before they bee iustified by fayth are sinne Preachyng the law of God and mercy of Christ SacrameÌ„ts without significations to be refused M. Tynball heâ—e beareth with tyme. By the affirâ—… he â—…neth the â—…on which M. Luther the â—axoÌ„s be hold of the Sacrament M. Tyndall aâ—… beareth w t tyme. Vbiquetie can not be proued Eating the whores flesh is to spoyle the Popes Churche â–ª onely for y â— praye and spoyle ther of Worldly wisedome so farre as it may serue to Gods glorie may be vsed Low waâ—kyng The vpright handlyng in the translation of M. Tyndall A low hart maketh a man hygh with God Authoritie is the glory of age Meekenes is the glory of youth Purgatory hath no profe by Scripture Iohn 6. The Iewes wer blynd and ignorant vnderstode not the wordes of Christ The true worke that is acceptable before God Abacuk 2. The Iewes desire a sigâ—e or token whereby they might beleue that he was Christ Psal 7. Christ required of the Iewes to haue fayth and trust in hym Christ explaneth sheweth him selfe to the Iewes Fayth onely appreheÌ„deth Christ and all hys benefites Christ rebuketh the incredulitie and lacke of fayth in the Iewes All that the father draw come vnto Christ Christe came from heaueÌ„ into earth to fulfill the will of his father He. y â— beleueth Christes death to be for the remissioÌ„ of his sinnes the same cateth y â— fleshe drinketh the bloud of Christ The cause of y e Iewes murmur Christ reproueth the murmuryng of the Iewes Esay 54. Ierem. 31. Iohn 6. All that beleue hope in Christ haue euerlastyng life M. More had not the vnderstandyng of the scriptures 1. Cor. 11. More is a mocker The eating or the bread of Christ is onely to beleue in Christes â—eath How the bread signifieth and sheweth Christes â—…esh Christes flesh is the spirituall foode of ouâ— soules The obstinate wilfull blyndnes of the Iewes The malice of the Iewes toward our Sauiour Christ The carnal Papistes ceasse not still to offer hym Hebr. 10. Thomistes be y â— schole Doctours Christ in saiyng y â— hys flesh is very meate doth not say that bread shal be transubstaâ—â—ated into hys flesh Christes wordes are spirituall not carnall More declareth hys ignoraunce and wilfull blyndnes More reporteth the Scriptures vntruly Mores first reason is coÌ„futeâ— Iohn 6. 10. 15. Christes Disciples murmured not at hys saying Christes â—…s wâ—… in all thynges to be spiritually vnderstand Abacuk 2. The confutation of his ij argument Christ in that he is God may doe all things that he will but yet he will not falsefye hys holy Scriptures More is a great setteâ—orth of vnwritten veâ—ities Although y e Pope daâ—e â—ot take vppon hym to be God â–ª yet he is coÌ„tented to be named taken for halfe a God Esay 42. Christ â—s touchyng his manhode occupieth at one â—y me but one place but hys Godhead is in all places at once Iohn 14. Iohn 10. Hebr. 11. Hebr. 9. Christes must nedes dye for God had so promised before Iohn 2. and 12. God may not be fouÌ„dâ—… More would haue beleued Christ if he had talked with hym what soeuer hee had said to him Gods almightye power is not to be to busely deale withall More doth but scoffe out the matter Matters of â—ayth are repugnauÌ„t to reason Gods blessed will is declared in his Scriptures More traucâ—leth in his Poetrie Mores similitude of faces in the glasse proueth no faces in substaunce By â—ayth we must eate and drinke Christes body and bloâ—d spiritually More writeth against hym selfe More an vpholder of vnwritten verities Abacuk 2. Fayth is y â— life of the righteous 1. Iohn 4. By fayth we eate drinke Christ and so he abydeth in vs and we in hym Christen religion is fayth and a lyfe correspondeÌ„t The Iewes and also the disciples of Christe were offended at his wordes Here Christ doth playnly shew that it is the spirituall eatyng not the fleshly eatyng of his body that profiteth The eating of Christes flesh profited nothyng The wordes of Christe were spirit and life Christes disciples vnderstode Christ to speake spiritually and beleued Math. 26. Math. 24. Luke 24. 1. Cor. 11. The order of the actâ—… Christ consecrated no bread but deliuered it to his Apostles to eate There is left vnto vs no wordes of consecration wherby we should alter and chauÌ„ge the nature of bread into his body The vse of the Supper The paschal lambe The true meanyng significatioÌ„ of the Sacrament of the body bloud of Christ Mores litterall sense â—s lost Marke 14. The wordes of consecratioÌ„ were spokeÌ„ after Christ had deliuered y â— bread the cup. Luke 22. 1. Cor. 11. How the Papistes wrest the wordes of Scripture Iohn 6. 1. Cor. 10. To eate Christes flesh is to beleue in hym The maner of Saint Paules speakyng Math. 15. An allegoticall spech wel allowed and
fayth The Apostles did ordeâ—…e that we should absteine froÌ„ bloud meaning all natural bloud Actes 10. The wyne in the Sacrament is no naturall bloud Obiection Solution To pull downe violently the kynges armes is treason agaynst hys owne person and yet the armes are not the kinges person To be negligent in the hearyng of the word of God is a great offeÌ„ce M. More Frith M. More is a quarelyng brabler M. More an ignorauÌ„t proctor for the Clergy God is almighty and yet cannot doe all thynges 2. Timo. 2. God is said to bee almighty because there is no supenour power aboue hym and he can do all that he wil. M. More Frith Iohn 8. 2. Cor. 3. Roma 6. Aug. de spiritu litera The articles in our Creede are as many as are necessary for our saluation M. More Frith The glasse that representeth the face is not the face The body of Christ is no more in the Sacrament then my face is in the glasse Christes deathe and body breakyng is knowen by the Sacrament yet it is not the naturall body of Christ M. More Frith Frith speaketh merâ—ly M. More Frith Astronomers say that the naturall course of the Sunne is from the West to the East A conclusioÌ„ agaynst the Astronomers Mark 14. Luke 16. Iohn 11. Christes body is in one place onely M. More Frith What soeuer the Papistes say that must stand for reason M. More Frith More harpeth vppon a false string More saith that God may do all thyngs but he doth not proue that he hath so done M. More Frith Two thinges disputed betwen More and Frith More Frith Iohn 15. Christes badge is loue That the sacrament is the naturall body is none article of our fayth necessary to be beleued vpon payne of damnation Superstition More Frith A man may iudge of error but God onely must be iudge of condemnation Frith is no hasty iudge More Frith To honor and worship the sacrament is plaine idolatry The olde holy fathers haue not taught to worship the sacrament Note ☜ More Frith Martin Luther sayth y t the natural body of Christ is present in y e sacrameÌ„t but he wold not haue it worshipped More Frith A meane how we may receaue y e sacrament according to Christes institution though the minister be negligent The worthy receauer of the sacrament may consecrate the same to him selfe M. More Frith M. More Frith The right consecratioÌ„ to hym that receaueth the Sacrament is fayth in Christes death The Popish consecration in Latine is not worth a rish The Byshops and their proctour can not tell what a blessyng meaneth ☜ Blessyng what it is M. More Frith Math. 24. 〈◊〉 Thess 2. Deutro 13. Actes 24. How you may iudge true miracles from false Math. 4. False Ante christes Actes 4. Actes 12. M. More Frith ☜ The Sacrament may not be worshypped The Papistes say that no promise nor couenaunt is to be kept with an hereticke More was fully addict to the mind of the Prelates and to kill and burne as fast as they More a Popish and a malicious tyraunt The condition conteined in Barnes safe coÌ„duite No promise nor licence made to heretickes by the kyng without the consent of our Prelates is to be kept and obserued M. More Frith The modesty meeke spirite of Iohn Frith Christes body is to be eaten with fayth not with the teeth A prayer made by Iohn â–ª Frith to be sayd before the receauyng of the Communion A godly good prayer The Paschall lambe and our sacrament coÌ„pared togither 1. Cor. 5. The maner of the eatyng of the Paschal lambe The maner of the institution of the Sacrament Iohn 16. The institution of the Sacrament The comparison of the Paschall lambe with Christes Supper The mauÌ„dy of remeÌ„brauÌ„ce that Paule receaued of the Lord deliuered to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 10. God hath ordeyned all meates to be indifferent Paule ☜ Christ called hym self bread and Paule calleth vs bread How the wordes of S. Paule are to bee vnderstaÌ„d Why the bread is called our body We must vnderstand the Sacrament spiritually or els we receaue it not to our comfort Paule The Gentiles offered theyr meate to Idolies To drynke of the cup of the Lord to drinke of the cup of the deuill how it is to be vnderstand A proper example The enemyes of Christ can not reioyce in Christes bloud shedding The faythfull and vnfaythfull do not eate alike 1. Cor. 8. 1. Iohn 3. The vnfaythfull and wicked eate their owne damnation 1. Cor. 11. The true eating of the Sacrament is the spirituall eating of the same Luke 22. The maner of the comming of the Corinthians together Why Christ did institute the Sacrament The sacrament was ordained to feede our soules and not our bodyes The worthy and vnworthy eating of Christes body What it is to proue examine a mans owne selfe The meaning of S. Paules formet wordes An Epitome of this whole booke The opinioÌ„ of the Prelates The opinioÌ„ of Frith 1. Cor. 1â—… 1. Cor. 11. Actes 2. Math. 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. Nature teacheth that there is both bread and wyne in the Sacrament The olde Doctours proue that there is bread in the SacrameÌ„t Gelasius in concilio Ro. The fayth of the Prelates The opinioÌ„ of Iohn Frith Iohn 6 â–ª August in serm de sacra fe passchâ— Beda Aug. de Ciuitate Dei in libro 21. Cap. 25. The wicked eate not Christes body Iohn 6. Onely the faythfull do eate Christes body and drinke his bloud The fayth of the Prelates The opinioÌ„ of Frith Ierem. 27. The ministration of the Sacrament doth lyuely expresse the death and passion of Christ The Sament beside the substaunce of of bread is Christes body and bloud They dishonour the SacrameÌ„t that geue it that honour that is due vnto God Frith here sheweth what hee thinketh of the Sacrament The Godhead is so ioyned with the maÌ„hode of Christ that they both make but one person August Of Baptisme Augustinus ad Bonifacium The first article The second article An other question An aunswere S. Augustines text Chrisostomus Chrisostomes wordes The exposition of S. Chrisosto text The true meaning of Chriso stomes wordes Solution Conclusion Beholde the cause of mi deathe Note Three causes Doct. Barnes a bolisher of barbarisme a founder of learning and a light of the trueth A wittie and pleasaunt deuise to escape the crueltie of tyrantes Stephen Gardyner the author of mischiefe and decay of religion in England The complaynt of Doctour Barnes made to K. Henry the viij agaynst the Lordly Byshops Prelates of EnglaÌ„d The tyrannous gouerment of the Byshops of England In the Byshops court no man can be founde Innocent What soeuer is not agaynst the Clergye thoughe the same be neuer so wicked yet finde they no fault therewith In vi Cap. Quo. in ver 〈◊〉 Papa Dist xl Ca. Si Papa Whosoeuer speake agaynst or preache agaynst any of their abuses and abhominations her
haue vowed that sauyng commeth of the Lord. For verely to confesse out of the hart that all benefites come of GOD euen out of the goodnesse of his mercie and not deseruing of our dedes is the onely sacrifice that pleaseth God And to beleue that all the Iewes vowed in their Circumcision as we in our Baptisme Whiche vowe Ionas now beyng taught with experience promiseth to pay For those outward sacrifices of beastes vnto which Ionas had happely ascribed to much before were but feble and childish thinges and not ordeined that the workes of them selues should be a seruice vnto the people but to put them in remembraunce of this inward sacrifice of thankes and of faith to trust and beleue in GOD the onely Sauiour whiche signification when it was away they were abhominable and deuilishe Idolatrie and Image seruice as our ceremonies and Sacramentes are become now to all that trust and beleue in the worke of them and are not taught the significations to edify their soules with knowledge and the doctrine of God When Ionas was cast vpon lande agayn then his will was free and had power to go whether God sent hym and to do what GOD bade his owne Imaginations layd a part For he had bene at a new schole yea and in a fornace where hee was purged of much refuse and drosse of fleshely wisedome whiche resisted the wisedome of God and led Ionasses will contrary vnto the will of God For as farre as we be blinde in Adam we can not but seke and will our owne profite pleasure glory And as farre as we be taught in the spirite we can not but seke and wil the pleasure and glory of God onely And as the iij. dayes iorney of Niniue whether it were in length or to go round about it or thorough all the stretes I commit vnto y t discretion of other men But I thinke that it was then the greatest Citie of the world And that Ionas went a dayes iourney in the Citie I suppose hee did it not in one day but went faire and easyly preachyng here a Sermon and there another and rebuked the sinne of the people for which they must perish And when thou art come vnto the repentauÌ„ce of the Niniuites there hast thou sure earnest that how soeuer angry God be yet he remembreth mercy vnto all that truly repent and beleue in mercy Whiche ensample our Sauiour Christe also casteth in the teeth of the indurate Iewes saying The Niniuites shall rise in iudgemeÌ„t with this nation and condemne them for they repented at the preachyng of Ionas and behold a greater then Ionas here meanyng of him selfe At whose preachyng yet thoughe it were neuer so mightie to pearce the hart and for all his miracles thereto the hard harted Iewes could not repent when the heathen Niniuites repeÌ„ted at the bare preachyng of Ionas rebukyng their sinnes without any miracle at all Why For the Iewes had leuened the spirituall law of God with their gloses had made it altogether earthly and fleshly and so had set a vaile or coueryng on Moses face to shadow and darken the glorious brightnes of hys countenaunce It was sinne to steale but to robbe widowes houses vnder a colour of long praying and to polle in the name of offerynges and to snare y t people with intollerable constitutions agaynst all loue to catche theyr money out of theyr purses was no synne at all To smite father and mother was sinne But to withdraw helpe from them at theyr nede for blynde zeale of offring vnto the profite of y e holy pharises was then as meritorious as it is now to let all thy kinne chuse whether they wil sincke or swimme while thou buildest and makest goodly foundations for holy people whiche thou hast chosen to be thy Christ for to supple thy soule with y t oyle of their swete blessinges and to be thy Iesus for to saue thy soule from the purgatory of the bloud that onely purgeth sinne with their watching fasting wolward goyng rising at midnight c. wherwith yet they purge not themselues from their couetousnes pride lechery or any vice that thou seest among the lay people It was great sinne for Christ to heale the people on the sabaoth day vnto the glory of God hys father but none at all for them to helpe their cattell vnto their owne profite It was sinne to eate with vnwashed handes or on an vnwashed table or out of an vnwashed dishe but to eate out of that purified dishe that whiche came of bribery thefte and extortion was no sinne at all It was exceeding meritorious to make many disciples but to teach theÌ„ to feare God in hys ordinaunces had they no care at all The hye Prelates so defended the right of holy church and so feared the people with the curse of God and terrible paynes of hell that no man durst leaue the vilest herbe in his garden vntithed And the offeringes and thinges dedicate vnto GOD for the profite of his holy vicars were in such estimatioÌ„ and reuerence that it was a much greteâ— sinne to sweare truly by them then to forsweare thy selfe by God What vengeaunce then of God and how terrible and cruell damnation thynke ye preached they to fall on them that had stolen so the holy thinges And yet sayth Christ that righteousnes fayth in kepyng promise mercy and indifferent iudgement were vtterly troden vnder foote and clean despised of those blessed fathers whiche so mightelye maintained Aarons patrimony and had made it so prosperous and enuironed it and walled it about on euery side with the feare of God that no maÌ„ durst touche it It was great holines to garnish the Sepulchers of the prophetes and to condemne their owne fathers for slaying of them and yet were they themselues for blynde zeale of their owne constitutions as redy as their fathers to slea whosoeuer testified vnto them the same truth which the prophets testified vnto their fathers So y t Christ compareth al the righteousnes of those holy patriarckes vnto the outwarde beauy of a painted Sepulcher full of stenche and all vncleannes within And finally to beguile a maÌ„s neighbors in subtle bargaining to wrap and compasse hym in with cautels of the law was then as it is now in the kyngdome of the Pope By the reason wherof they excluded the law of loue out of their hartes and consequently all true repentaunce for how coulde they repent of that they could not see to be sinne And on the other side they had set vp a righteousnes of holy workes to cleÌ„se their soules with all as the Pope sanctifieth vs with holy oyle holy bread holy salte holy candels holy dome ceremonies and holy dome blessinges with whatsoeuer holines thou wilt â—aue with the holines of Gods worde which onely speaketh vnto the harte and sheweth the soule hys filthinesse and vncleannes of synne and leadeth her
to be perfect But no precept to bynde vnder payne of sinne And so by that meanes not onely they that spake true but also they that lyed to deceaue were compelled to sweare and to confirme their wordes with othes if they would be beleued But Christ bringeth light and salt to the texte which the Phariâ—eis had darckened and corrupt with the stynkyng myst of their sophistrie and forbiddeth to sweare at all either by God or any creature of Gods for thou canst sweare by none othe at all except the dishonour shall redound vnto y e name of God If thou sweare by God it is so or by God I wil do this or that the meanyng is that thou makest God iudge to aduenge it of thee if it be not as thou sayest or if thou shalt not do as thou promisest Now if truth be not in thy woordes thou shamest thyne heauenly father and testifiest that thou beleuest that he is no righteous iudge nor wil aduenge vnrighteousnesse but that he is wicked as thou art and conseÌ„teth and laugheth at thee while thou deceauest thy brother as well created after the likenesse of God and as deare bought with the precious bloude of Christ as thou And thus through thee a wicked sonne is the name of thy father dishonoured and his law not feared nor hys promises beleued And when thou swearest by the Gospell booke or Bible the meanyng is that God if thon lye shall not fulfill vnto thee the promises of mercy there in written But contrarywise to bryng vpoÌ„ thee all the cursses plagues veÌ„geance therin threatned vnto y e disobedient euill doers And euen so when thou swearest by any creature as by bread or salt the meanyng is that thou desirest that the creatour therof shall aduenge it of thee if thou lye c. Wher fore our dealyng ought to be so substaÌ„tiall that our wordes might be beleued without an othe Our wordes are the signes of the truth of our hartes in which ought to be pure and single loue toward thy brother for what soeuer proceedeth not of loue is damnable Now falsehead to deceaue him pure loue can not stand together It can not therfore be but damnable sinne to deceaue thy brother with lying though y u adde no othe to thy woordes Much more damnable is it then to deceaue to adde an othe therto c. Howbeit all maner of swearyng is not here forbydden no more then all maner of killyng wheÌ„ the coÌ„maundement saith kill not for iudges and rulers must kill EueÌ„ so ought they wheÌ„ they put any man in office to take an othe of him that he shal be true faithfull and diligent therein And of their subiectes it is lawfull to take othes of all that offer theÌ„ selues to beare witnesse But if the superiour would compel the inferiour to sweare that should be to the dishonour of God or hurting of an innocent the inferiour ought rather to dye then to sweare Neither ought a iudge to coÌ„pell a man to swere agaynst him self that he make him not sinne forsweare Wherof it is inough spoken in an other place But here is forbidden swearyng betwene neighbour neighbour and in all our priuate busynesse and dayly communicatioÌ„ For customable swearyng though we lyed not doth robbe the name of God of his due reuerence feare And in our dayly coÌ„munication businesse one with an other is so much vanitie of wordes that we can not but in many thyngs lye which to confirme with an othe though we beguile not is to take the name of God in vayne vnreuerently agaynst the second precept Now to lye for the entent to beguile is damnable of it self how much more then to abuse the holy name of God thereto and to call to God for vengeaunce vpon thyne owne selfe Many cases yet there chaunce dayly betwene man and man in which charitie compelleth to sweare as if I know that my neighbour is falsely sclaundered I am bound to report the truth and may lawfully sweare yea am bounde if it neede and that though not before a iudge And vnto y â— weake where ye and nay haue lost their credence thorow the multitude of lyers a man may lawfully sweare to put them out of doubt Which yet commeth of y â— euill of them that abuse their language to deceaue withall Finally to sweare to do euill is dampnable and to performe that is double damnation Herodes oth made him not innocent and giltlesse of the death of Iohn the Baptist though the hipocrite had not knowen what his wiues daughter would haue asked And wheÌ„ men say a kings worde must stand that is trouth if his oth or promise be lawfull expedient In all our promises it is to be added if God will if there be no lawfull â—et And though it be not added it is to be interprete as added As if I borow thy sworde and by the houre I promise to bring it thee agayne thou be beside thy selfe If I promise to pay by a certaine day and be in the meane tyme robbed or decayed by chaunce that I cannot performe it I am not forsworne if myne hart ment truely when I promised And many like cases there be of which are touched in other places To lye also and to dissemble is not alway sinne Dauid 1. Reg. 27. tolde kyng Achis the Philistine that he had robbed hys owne people the Iewes when he had bene a rouing among the Amalekites and had flayne man woman and childe for telling tales And yet was that lye no more sinne then it was to destroy the Amalekytes those deadly enemies of the fayth of one almighty God Neither sinned Cusai Dauids trusty frend 2. Reg. 17. in fayning and beguilyng Absolon but pleased God highly To beare a sicke man in hand that wholesome bitter medicine is swete to make hym drinke it it is the dutie of charitie and no sinne To perswade hym that pursueth hys neighbour to hurt hym or slay hym that hys neighbour is gone an other contrary way is the duty of euery Christen man by the law of charitie and no sinne no though I confirmed it with an othe But to lye for to deceaue and hurt that is dampnable onely c. Ye haue heard how it is sayde an eye for an eye a toth for a toth But I say vnto you that ye withstand not wrong But if a maÌ„ geue thee a blow on the right cheeke turne to him the other also And if any man will goe to lawe with thee and take away thy coate let hym haue thy clocke thereto And if any maÌ„ compell thee to goe a mile goe with him twaine Geue to him that asketh and from hym that would borow turne not away Christ here enteÌ„deth not to disanull the temporall regiment and to forbid rulers to punishe euill doers no more then he ment to destroy matrimony when he forbad to lust and to couet
nor reason can see any way out saue fayth onely is sure that God hath will make a way thorow But that temptation is but for an houre to teach them and to make them feele the goodnes of their father and y e passions of their brethren and of their master Christ also It is but as a louyng mother to make her childe to perceaue and feele her kindnes to loue her a-againe and be thankfull letteth it hunger in a morning And when it calleth for his breakfast maketh as she heard not til for paine and impaciencie it beginneth to cry a good And then she stilleth it and geueth it all that it asketh and more to to please it And when it is peaced and beginneth to eate and reioyceth and is glad and fayne she asketh who gaue thee that thy mother and it sayth ye Then sayth she Am not I a good mother that geue thee all thynges and it answereth ye And she asketh wilt thou loue thy mother c. And it sayth ye and so commeth it to the knowledge of hys mothers kindnesse and is thankfull Such is the temptation of Christes elect and other wyse not Here is not forbiddin all manner of care but that worldly and deuillishe care that springeth of an inordinate loue to worldly thynges and of mystrust in God As for an ensample I couet inordinatly more then sufficient or but euē that I haue nede of And it because I mistrust God and haue no hope in hym and therefore pray not to him commeth not Then I mourne sorrow and pine away and am whole vnquiet in mynehart Or whether I haue to much or but sufficient and loue it inordinatly then I care for the keeking And because I mistrust God haue no hope in him that he wil helpe me therefore when I haue locked doores chambers and cofers I am neuer the nerer at rest but care stil and cast a thousand perilles of which the most part were not in my might to auoyde though I neuer slept And where this care is there can the word of God haue no resting place but is choked vp as soone as it is sowne There is an other care that springeth out of the loue of God for euery loue hath her care is a care to keepe Gods commaundementes This care must euery man haue For a mā liueth not by bread onely but much more by euery worde that proceedeth out of the mouth of God The keping of Gods commaundement is the life of a man as well in this world as in the worlde to come As childe obey father mother that thou mayst long liue on the earth And by father mother is vnderstand al rulers which if thou obey thy blessing shall be long life and contrary if thou disobey short life and shalt either perishe by the sworde or by some other plague and that shortly And euen so shal the ruler if he rule not as God hath commaunded Oppresse thou a widow and fatherlesse children sayth God and they shall cry to me and I will heare their voyce then will my wrath waxe hot so I will sinite you with sworde your wiues shall be widowes your children fatherles Some will say I see none more prosper or longer continue then those that be most cruell tyrauntes What then yet say I that God abideth euer true For where he setteth vp a tyraūt and continueth him in prosperitie it is to be a scourge to wicked subiects that haue forsaken the couenaunt of the Lord their God And vnto them hys good promises pertayne not saue hys cursses onely But if y e subiectes would turne and repēt and folow the wayes of God he would shortly deliuer thē How be it yet where the superior corrupteth the inferior which els is disposed inough to goodnes God wyll not let them long continue An exposition of the seuenth Chapter IVdge not that ye be not iudged For as ye iudge so shall ye be iudged And wyth what measure ye mete with the same shall it be measured to you agayne Why lookest thou on the mote that is in thy brothers eye and markest not the beame that is in thine owne eye Or how canst thou say to thy brother Let me plucke out the mote out of thine eye and behold there is a beame in thyne owne eye Thou hipocrite plucke first the beame out of thine owne eye and then thou shalt see clearely to plucke the mote out of thy brothers eye This is not ment of the temporall iudgemētes for Christ forbad not that but oft did stablishe it as do Peter Paule in their Epistles also Nor here is not forbidden to iudge those deedes which are manifest against the lawe of God for those ought euery Christē mā to persecute yet must they do it after the order that Christ hath set But whē he sayth hipocrite cast out first the beame that is in thyne owne eye it is easie to vnderstand of what maner of iudging he meaneth The hipocrites will haue fastings prayinges kneling crouching ducking and a thousand ceremonies of their owne inuention And whosoeuer do not as they doo him they counte a dampned soule by and by To Christ they say why fast not thy disciples as the Phariseyes do Why plucke they the eares of corne and rubbe them in their handes though they did it compelled with pure hunger and do that is not lawfull on the Sabboth day Why breake ye the traditions of our Elders and washe not when ye sitte downe to meate yea and why doost thou thy self heale the people vpon the holy day Why diddest thou not onely heale him that was bedred 38. yeares but also baddest him beare his bedde away vpon the Saboth day Be there not workyng day sufficient to do good deede to the prayse of God and profite of thy neigybour but that thou must breake thy Saboth day He cannot be but a damned person that breaketh the holy day and despiseth the ordinaunce of the holy Church He eateth Butter a Frydayes withour a dispensation of our holy father the Pope yea cakebread made wyth milke and egges to and white meate in the Lent he taketh no holy water when he commeth to the Church he heareth no Masse frō Sonday to Sōday And either he hath no beades at al or els y ◠shalt not heare a stone clink in the hand of hym nor yet hys lippes wagge all the Masse and Mattens while O hipocrite cast out first the beame that is in thine owne eye and then thou shalt see better Thou vnderstandest all Gods lawes falsely therefore thou kepest none of thē truely his lawes require mercy and no◠sacrifice Moreouer thou hast a false entent in all the workes that y ◠doost and therefore are they all dampnable in the sight of God Hipocrite cast out the beame that is in thine owne eye learne to vnderstand the lawe of God truely and to do thy
â— little flock To put away thy sinnes Nay brethreÌ„ god forbid that ye should so thinke Christes bloud onely washeth away the sinnes of all that repent and beleue Fire salt water bread oyle be bodely thynges geuen vnto man for his necessitie and to helpe hys brother wyth and God that is a spirit cannot be serued therwyth Neyther can such thynges enter into the soule to purge her For Gods worde onely is her purgation No say they are not such thynges halowed And say we not in the halowing of them that who soeuer is sprinkled wyth the water or eateth of the bread shall receaue health of soule and body Sir the blessinges promised vnto Abraham for all nations are in Christ and out of his bloud we must fet them and his word is the bread salt water of our soules God hath geueÌ„ you no power to geue thorow your charmes such vertue vnto vnseÌ„sible creatures which he hath halowed himselfe made them all cleane for the bodely vse of them that beleue thorow his word of promise and permission and our thankes geuing God sayth if thou beleue Saint Ihons gospell thou shalt be saued and not for y e bearyng of it about thee with so many crosses or for the obseruing of any such obseruaunces God for thy bitter passion rore they out by by what an hereticke is this I tel thee that holy church neede to alleadge no scripture for them for they haue the holy Ghost which inspireth theÌ„ euer secretly so y t they can not erre whatsoeuer they say do or ordayne What wilt thou dispise the blessed Sacramentes of holy church wherewyth God hath bene serued this xv hundred yeare ye verely this v. thousaÌ„d yeres euen since Cain hetherto and shall endure vnto the worldes end among theÌ„ that haue no loue vnto the truth to be saued thereby thou art a strong hereticke and worthy to be burnt And theÌ„ he is excommunicat out of the church If y t little flocke feare not that bugge then they goe straight vnto the king And it like your grace perilous people and seditious and euen inough to destroy your realme if ye see not to them betimes They be so obstinat tough that they wyll not be conuerted and rebellious agaynst God and the ordinaunces of hys holy church And how much more shal they so be against your grace if they encrease and grow to a multitude They wyll peruert all and surely make new lawes and eyther subdue your grace vnto them or ryse agaynst you And theÌ„ goeth a part of y t little flocke to pot and the rest scatter Thus hath it euer bene and shall euer â—e let no man therefore deceaue hymselfe An aunswere to M. Mores second booke IN the first Chapter ye may not try the doctrine of the spiritualtie by the Scripture But what they say that beleue vndoubtedly and by that try the Scripture And if thou finde the playne contrary in the Scripture thou mayst not beleue the Scripture but seke a Glose and an allegorie to make them agree As wheÌ„ the pope sayth ye be iustified by the woorkes of the ceremonies and Sacramentes and so forth and the Scripture sayth that we be iustified at the repentauÌ„ce of the hart through Christes bloud The first is true playne as the pope sayth it and as it standeth in his text but the secoÌ„d is false as it appeareth vnto thine vnderstandyng and the literall sence that killeth Thou must therfore beleue the Pope and for Christes doctrine seeke an allegorie and a mysticall sence that is thou must leaue the cleare light and walke in the miste And yet Christ and his Apostles for all their miracles required not to be beleued without scripture as thou mayst see Iohn v. and Act. xvij and by their diligent alledgyng of Scripture through out all the new Testament And in the end he sayth for his pleasure that we knowledge that no man may minister SacrameÌ„ts but he that is deriuede out of the Pope Howbeit this we knowledge that no man could minister Sacramentes without signification which are no Sacramentes saue such as are of the Popes generation The iij. Chapter IN the third Chapter in the Chapter folowyng he vttereth how fleshly mynded he is and how beastly he imagineth of God as Paule sayth 1. Cor. 2. the naturall man can not vnder stand the thyngs of the spirite of God He thinketh of God as he doth of hys Cardinall that he is a monster pleased when men flatter him if of whatsoeuer frailtie it be men breake his coÌ„maundementes he is theÌ„ ragyng mad as the Pope is seketh to be venged Nay God is euer fatherly minded toward the elect meÌ„bers of his Church He loued them yer the world began in Christ Ephe. 1. He loueth theÌ„ while they be yet euill his enemies in their hartes yer they be come vnto y â— knowledge of his sonne Christ and yer his law be written in their hartes as a father loueth his young sonne while he is yet euill yer it know the fathers law to consent therto And after they be once actually of his Church and the law of God faith of Christ written in their hartes their hartes neuer sinne any more though as Paul sayth Rom. vij the flesh doth in them that the spirit would not And when they sinne of frailtie God ceaseth not to loue them still though he â—e angry to put a crosse of tribulatioÌ„s vpon their backes to purge them and to subdue the flesh vnto the spirite or to all to breake their consciences with threatnyng of the law and to feare theÌ„ with hell As a father when his sonne offeÌ„deth him feareth him with the rod but hateth him not God did not hate Paule when he persecuted but had layd vp mercy for hym in store though he was angry with him to scourge him and to teach him better Neither were those things layd on his backe which he after suffered to make satisfaction for his foresinnes but onely to serue his brethren and to keepe the flesh vnder Neither did God hate Dauid when he had sinned though he was angry with hym Neither did he after suffer to make satisfactioÌ„ to God for his old sinnes but to kepe his flesh vnder to keepe him in mekenesse and to be an example for our learnyng The iiij Chapter IN the fourth sayth he if the Churche were an vnknoweÌ„ coÌ„pany how should the infidels if they longed for the fayth come thereby O whether wandereth a fleshly mynde as though we first sought out God Nay God kitoweth his and seketh them out sendeth his messengers vnto them geueth them an hart to vnderstand Did the heatheÌ„ or any nation seke Christ Nay Christ sought them and sent his Apostles vnto them As thou seest in the storyes from the begynnyng of the world and as the parables and similitudes of the
more when the Sacrament is sene with the eyes the bread broken the wine poured out or looked on and yet more when I tast it and smell it As ye see when a man maketh promise to an other with light wordes betwene them selues and as they departed hee to whom the promise is made beginneth to doubt whether the other spake earnestly or mocked and doubteth whether he will remember his promise to bide by it or not But when any man speaketh with aduisement and deliberation the wordes are thē more credible but yet if he sweare it confirmeth the thyng more and yet the more if he strake handes if he geue earnest if he call record if he geue his hād writing and seale it so is the promise more and more beleued for the hart gathereth Lo he spake with aduisement deliberation and good sadnes he clapped hands called recordes and put to his hand and seale the man cannot be so faynt without the feare of God as to deny all this Shame shall make him bide by his promise though he were such a man that I could not compell him if he would deny it If a young mā breake a ryng betwene him and a mayde doth not the fact testifie make a presumption to all men that his hart meant as his wordes spake Manoha Sampsones father when he had sene an aungell Iud. 13. he sayd to his wife we shal surely dye because we haue sene the Lord. But his wife gathered other comfort of the circumstaunces and sayd if the Lord would kill vs he would not haue receaued such offerings of our hands nor shewed vs such thynges as he hath nor told vs of thynges to come Euen so our harts gather of the circūstaunces protestatiōs and other miracles of God good argumentes and reasons to stablish our weake fayth with all such as we could not gather at bare woordes onely And this we dispute God sent his sonne in our nature made him feele all our infirmities that moue vs to sinne and named him Iesus that is to say Sauiour because he should saue his people from their sinnes Math. 1. And after his death he sent his Apostles to preach the thynges or tydynges and to thrust it in at the eares of vs set vp a Sacrament of it to testifie it to be a seale of it to thrust it in not at the eares onely by the rehearsing of the promises and Testament ouer it neither at our eyes onely in beholdynge it but beate it in through our feelyng tastyng and smelling also and to be repeated dayly to be ministred to vs. He would not thinke we make halfe so much a do with vs if he loued vs not or if he would not haue vs fayne come and be as mercyfull to vs as he was to his frēdes in the old tyme that fell and rose agayne God so then vsed the Iewes to whom all ceremonyes were first giuen and from whom they came to vs euen such fashions as they vsed among them selues in all his promises and couenauntes not for his necessitie but for ours that such thynges should be a witnes and testimonie betwene him and vs to cōfirme the fayth of his promise that we should not wauer nor doubt in them when we looke on the seales of his obligations wherwith he hath bound him selfe And to keepe the promises and couenauntes better in mynde and to make them the more deepe sinke in our hartes and to be more earnestly regarded and that we should aske what such thynges ment and why God cōmaunded them to be obserued that ignoraunce should not excuse if we know not what we ought to do beleue for naturall reason ought to teach vs that y t outward corporall bodily thyng can not helpe the spirituall soule and that GOD hath not delectation in such fantasie Now if we were diligent to search for the good will of God and would aske what such ceremonies meant It were impossible but then God which hath promised Math. 7. If we seeke we shal finde would send vs true interpreters of his signes or Sacramentes And he that beyng of a lawfull age obserueth a ceremonie and knoweth not the entent to him is the ceremonie not onely vnprofitable but also hurtfull and cause of sinne In that he is not carefull and diligent to search for it and he there obserueth them with a false fayth of his owne imagination thinking as all Idolaters do and euer haue done that the outward woorke is a sacrifice and seruice to God The same therfore sinneth yet more deeper and more damnable Neither is Idolatrie any other thyng then to beleue that a visible ceremonie is a seruice to the inuisible God whose seruice is spirituall as he is a spirite and is none other thyng then to know that all is of hym and to trust in hym onely for all thynges and to loue him for his great goodnes and mercy aboue all and our neighbours as our selues for his sake vnto which spirituall seruyng of God and to leade vs to the same the old ceremonies were ordeined These be now sufficient concernyng the entent and vse of the ceremonies how they came vp Now let vs consider the wordes of this Testament and promises as they be rehearsed of the three Euangelistes Mathew Marke and Luke of the Apostle Paule For Iohn whiche wrote last touched nothyng that was sufficiently declared of other Math in the 26. thus sayth when they were eatyng Iesus tooke bread gaue thankes and brake and gaue hys Disciples and sayd take eate this is my body And he tooke the cup and thanked and gaue it them saying Drinke ye all of this for this is my bloud whiche is of the new Testament that is shed for many for the remission of sinnes First ye see by these wordes that the body was giuen to death and the bloud shed for the remiūiō of sinnes and that for many But who are these many Verely they that turne to GOD to beleue in hym onely and to endeuour them selues to keepe his law from hence forth Which many yet in respect of thē that loue not the law are but very few and euen that little flocke that gaue them selues wholy to follow Christ wherfore if any man thinke hee beleue in Christ and haue not the law written in his hart to consent that his dutie is to loue hys brother for Christ sake as Christ loued him and to endeuour him selfe so to do The fayth of that same man is vayne and built vppon sand of of his own imagination and not vpon the rocke of Gods word for his worde vnto which he hath bound himselfe is that they onely which turne to God to keepe his lawes shall haue mercy for Christes sake Drinke of it all for it is my bloud of the new Testament for it is that is to say the drinke that is in the cup or if ye list the cup
is my bloud of the new Testament takyng the cup for drinke by a maner of speaking vsed in all tounges as when we say I haue dronke a cup of wine we take there the cuppe for the wyne My bloud of this new Testamēt that is to say my bloud for whose shedding sake this new Testament and couenaūt is made to you for the forgeuenes of sinne The old Testament made betwene God and your fathers in mount Synai in whiche life was promised to thē onely that kept it and to the breakers death wrath and vengeance and to be accursed and no mētion made of mercy whiche was confirmed with bloud Exodus 24. Moyses offered halfe the bloud to God and sprinkeled the people with the other halfe to cōfirme the couenaunt and to bynde both parties neither was there any couenaūt made that was not confirmed with bloud as it is rehearsed Hebrues the 9. And as we see in the bookes of Moses whose custome of bloushedding was not onely to confirme those old couenauntes but also to be a prophecie of the bloud that should be shed to confirme this Testament That old cruell fearefull testamēt which drew y e people away so that they durst not abyde the voyce of thunder nor the terrible sight of the fire but went and stode a farre of was cōfirmed with the bloud of calues But this new and gentle Testament which calleth agayne and promiseth mercy to all that will amend And as it is a better Testamēt so is it confirmed with a better bloud to make men see loue to loue agayne and to be a greater confirmation of the loue promised For if he gaue vs his sonne what will he deny vs If God so loued vs whē we were sinners and knew him not that hee gaue his sonne for vs how much more loueth he vs now whē we loue agayn and would fayne kepe his cōmaundementes In the old couenauntes the people were sprinckled with bloud of calues without in their bodies to bynd thē to keepe the law els we were boūd to iust damnatiō for the breakyng of it Here it is sayd drinke of it euery one that your soules within may bee sprinkled and washed thorough fayth with the bloud of the sonne of God for the forgeuenes of sinne and to be partakers of a more easie and kynde Testament vnder which if you sinne thorough fragilitie you shal be warned louingly receiued to mercy if you will turne agayne and amend Marke in the. 14. And as they dyd eate Iesus tooke bread and when hee had geuen thākes he brake it gaue it to them sayd Take eate this is my body and he tooke the cup and when he had geuē thākes he tooke it to thē they al drāke of it And he said to thē this is my bloud of y e new Testament whiche is shed for many This is all one with Mathew as is aforesayd Luke in the 22. And he tooke bread when he had geuen thankes he brake it and gaue to them saying This is my body which is giuen for you this do in remembraunce of me Likewise also when he had supped he tooke the cup saying This cuppe is the new Testament in my bloud which is shed for you Here is also to be noted that y t cause of the institution was to be a memoriall to testifie that Christes body was giuē and his bloud shed for vs. And agayne where Mathew Marke sayd this is my bloud in the new Testament Luke sayth This cup is the new testamēt in my bloud whiche shal be shed for you This is a straunge speakyng far frō the vse of our toung to call the signe confirmation by the name of the thing that is signified confirmed The Testament is that Christes bloud is shed for our sinnes And Christ sayth This cup is that testament signifieng thereby that y e thing that is meant by this ceremony is that we beleue that his bloud shedding is the remissiō of our sinnes which is the very Testament Paul 1. Cor. 11. saith on this maner That which I deliuered vnto you I receaued of the Lord. For the Lorde Iesus the same night in the whiche he was betrayed tooke bread and when he had geuen thankes he brake it and said Take ye and eate this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembraūce of me After the same maner also he tooke the cup when he had supped saying This cup is the new Testament in my bloud this do as oftē as ye drinke it in the remēbraūce of me For as often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shall shewe the Lordes death vntill he come As Mathew and Marke agree in these wordes So do Lucas and Paul And as it is aboue declared vppon the wordes of Luke and so here by oft repeatyng one thyng This do in remembraunce of me This cup is the new Testament in my bloud This do as oft as ye drinke it in the remembraunce of me Agayne as oft as ye shall eate of this bread and drinke of this cup so oft ye must declare the Lordes death By this oftē repeatyng I say ye may euidently perceaue the cause entēt and whole purpose of the institution of this Sacrament was to testifie and confirme the fayth of the Testament made in the death of Christ how that for his sake our sinnes shal be forgeuen So do this in the remembraunce of me that is to say Take bread wyne and rehearse the couenaunt and testament ouer them How that my body was broken and my bloud shed for many and thē geue them to the people to eate and drinke to be a signe and earnest and the seale of the Testament crie vpon them without ceassing to beleue in me onely for the remission of sinnes and not to dispayre how weake soeuer they be onely if they hang on me and desire power to keepe the law after my doctrine and example of my lyfe and do morne and be sory bycause they cannot do that good thyng which they would For sayth Paul who soeuer shall eate of this bread or drinke of the cup of the Lord vnworthely shal be giltie of the body and bloud of the Lord that is to say whoso receaueth the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ with an vncleane hart not forsaking the old lustes of the flesh Nor purposing to folow Christ and to loue his neighbour as onely Christ was to hym mercyfull The same sinneth agaynst the body bloud of Christ In that hee maketh a mocke of the earnest death of Christ as it is written Hebrues the. 10. treadeth Christ vnder foote and counteth the bloud of the Testament wherwith he was sāctified as an vnholy thyng doth dishonour to the spirite of grace Of this ye may perceaue agayne what the Sacrament meaneth what the entent of the ordinaunce
was and how such ceremonies came vp and whence they had their begynnyng and what the frute thereof is and what is therin to be sought And though this were inough so that I might here wel cease yet because the vnquiet scrupulous and superstitious nature of man wholy giuen to Idolatrie hath styrred vp such traditions about this one Sacrament most specially I cannot but speake therof somewhat more and declare what my conscience thinketh in this matter Ye shall vnderstand therfore that there is great dissention and three opinions about the woordes of Christ where he sayth in pronouncyng the testament ouer the bread This is my body And in pronouncyng it ouer the wyne This is my bloud One part say that these woordes This is my body This is my bloud compell vs to beleue vnder payne of damnation that the bread and wyne are chaunged into the very body and bloud of Christ really As the water at Cana Galilee was turned into very wyne The second part sayth we be not bound to beleue that bread and wyne are chaunged but onely that his body and bloud are there presently The thyrd say we be bound by these woordes onely to beleue that Christes body was broken and hys bloudshed for the remissiō of our sinnes and that there is no other satisfaction for sinne then the death and passion of Christ The first say these woordes This is my body This is my bloud compell vs to beleue that thynges there shewed are the very body and bloud of Christ really But bread and wyne say they cannot be Christes naturall body ther fore the bread and wyne are chaunged turned altered and transubstantiated into the very body bloud of Christ And they of this opinion haue busied them selues in seekyng subtilties and similitudes to proue how the very body and bloud might be there vnder the similitude of bread and wine onely the very bread and wyne beyng thus trāsubstantiated And these men haue ben so occupyed in slaying all that wil not captiue their wits to beleue them that they neuer taught nor vnderstode that the Sacrament is an absolution to all that therby beleue in the body bloud of Christ The second part graunt with the first that the wordes compel vs to beleue that the things shewed in the Sacrament are the very body and bloud of Christ But where the first say bread and wine cannot be the very body and bloud of Christ There they vary and dissent from them affirming that bread and wine may and also is Christes body really and very bloud of Christ and say that it is as true to say that bread is Christes body and that wyne is hys bloud as it is true to say Christ beyng a very mā is also very God And they say as the Godhead and manhode in Christ are in such maner coupled togegether that mā is very God and God very man Euen so the very body and the bread are so coupled that it is as true to say that bread is the body of Christ and the bloud so annexed there with the wyne that it is euen as true to say that the wyne is Christes bloud The first though they haue slayne so many in and for the defence of their opinion yet they are ready to receiue the second sort to fellowshyp not greatly striuyng with them or abhorryng the presence of bread and wyne with the very body and bloud so that they yee by that meanes may keepe hym there still and hope to sell hym as deare as before and also some to bye hym and not to minish the price The thyrd sort affirme that the wordes meane no more but onely that we beleue by the thyngs that are there shewed that Christes body was brokē and his bloud shed for our sinnes if we will forsake our sinnes turne to God to kepe his law And they say that these sayinges This is my body and This is my bloud shewyng bread wyne are true as Christ meant them and as the people of that countrey to whō Christ spake were accustomed to vnderstand such wordes and as the Scripture vseth in a thousand places to speake As when one of vs sayth I haue dronke a cup of good wyne that saying is true as the mā meant that he dranke wyne onely and not the cup whiche wordes happely in some other nations eares would sound that he dranke the cuppe And as when we say of a child This is such a mans very face the wordes are true as the maner of our land is to vnderstand them that the face of the one is very like the other And as whē we say he gaue me his fayth and hys truth in my hand the wordes are true as we vnderstand them that he stroke handes with me or gaue earnest in signe or token that he would byde by his promise For the fayth of a mā doth alway rest in his soule and cannot be giuen out though we giues signes and tokens of them Euen so say they we haue a thousād examples in the Scripture where signes are named with names of thynges signified by them As Iacob called the place where hee saw the Lord face to face Phenyell that is Gods face when he saw the Lord face to face Now it is true to say of that field that it is Gods face though it be not his very face The same field was so called to signifie that Iacob there saw God face to face The chief hold and principall ancre that the two first haue is these words This is my body This is my bloud Vnto these the third aunswereth as is aboue sayd other textes they alledge for them selues whiche not onely do not strength their cause but rather make it worse As in y e sixt of Iohn which they draw and wrest to the carnall and flesh ly eating of Christes body in y e mouth when it onely meaneth of this eatyng by fayth For when Christ sayd except ye eate the flesh of the sonne of mā and drinke hys bloud ye haue no lyfe in you This cannot be vnderstanded of the Sacrament For Abraham had life and all the old holy fathers Christes mother Elizabeth Zacharias Iohn Baptist Symeon Anna and all the Apostles had lyfe already by fayth in Christ Of which not one had eatē hys flesh and dronke his bloud with theyr bodily mouthes But truth it is that the righteous liueth by his fayth Ergo to beleue and trust in Christes bloud is the eatyng that there was meant as the texte well proueth if they say we graunt that life commeth by faith but we all that beleue must be Baptised to keepe the law and to keepe the couenaunt in mynde Euen so all that lyueth by fayth must receiue the Sacrament I aunswere The Sacrament is a confirmation to weake consciences and in no wise to be despised howbeit many haue lyued by fayth in the wildernes whiche in 20. 30.
or 40. yeares haue not receiued the Sacramēt Notwithstanding this Oration is nothing to the purpose For Christ spake to the blinde and vnbeleuyng Iewes testifieng to them that they could haue no lyfe excepte they should first eate his flesh and drinke his bloud Ergo this eatyng and drinkyng is meant onely of that thyng that first bryngeth lyfe into the soule and that is faith by your owne confession And therfore must it be vnderstand of fayth onely and not of the Sacrament And Mathew the last I am with you alwayes euen vnto the end of the world which may well be vnderstand and so was it of old Doctours that by his spirituall beyng with vs by fayth and in his spirite and so may that text of Mathew 18. be vnderstand where two or thre are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them There is many tymes ij or three good men that mete together in Christes name where the Sacramēt is not And Paule Ephes 3. boweth his knees for the Ephesians to God that he would geue thē his riches to be strenghthened with his spirite that Christ may dwell in their hartes thorough fayth Where the hart then beleueth in Christ there dwelleth Christ in the hart though there be no bread in the hart neither yet in the maw The two first partes takyng the old Doctours to be on their side I aunswere many of the old doctours spake so mystically that they sente sometimes to affirme playnly that it is but bread and wyne onely concernyng the substaunce And that it is a figure of the body and bloud of Christ onely some tyme that it is his very body bloud therfore it were nedelesse to wade any further herein And vnto them of the second opiniō that the bread is his very body I aunswere ye must remember that the old Doctours as earnestly call it a sacrifice as they do Christes body But that ye denye And say with the Epistle to the Hebrues that he was but once sacrificed for altogether whē he offered sacrificed him selfe to the father for our sinnes and can now no more be sacriced Christ dieth no more now and therfore is no more sacrificed Neither do we properly offer him to God But he in his mortall flesh offered him selfe for vs to GOD the father and purchased therewith a generall pardon for euer And now doth God the father profer him and giueth him to vs. And the Priestes in Gods stede proferre hym and giue hym vnto the people for a remission and absolution of their sinnes dayly if they by the mouyng and styrryng of the Sacramēt beleue in the body and bloud of Christ Wherfore ye ought of no right to be angry with them of the thyrd opinion though they denie the Doctors where they seme to say that the Sacrament is the very body of Christ As they be not angrie with you when ye deny them where they as earnestly affirme that it is a sacrifice Neuerthelesse they aunswere that Doctours call it a sacrifice onely because it is the memoriall the earnest and seale of that euerlasting sacrifice offered once for all And euen so say they that the Doctours called the Sacrament the body bloud of Christ after the same maner onely because it is the memoriall the earnest and seale of body and bloud as the vse of Scriptures is to call signes by the names of thynges signified therby And vnto them of the first opinion I aunswere with the same reason that it is impossible that the Sacrament should be a very sacrifice For neither the sacrifices of the old law which prophecied the sacrifising of Christ neither yet our redemption was fulfilled at night For if the Scriptures and prophecies were then fulfilled and we thē redemed Christ dyed on the morow in vayne and false are the Apostles and Euangelistes that preache hys body breakyng and bloud sheddyng vnder Pontius Pylate by the persecution of Cayphas and Annas to bee our redemption Moreouer for all the breakyng and deuidyng of the Sacrament of his body among his Apostles His body abode still alyue and for all the pouryng out of the Sacrament of his bloud of the pot into the cup and out of the cup into the mouthes and belyes of his Disciples hee blede as fresh on the morow as though he had blede then nothyng at all He was verely much more easely sacrificed that night in the breakyng diuidyng of the bread and pouring out of wyne then he was on the morow The Sacrament was that night no doubt but a description of his passiō to come And it is now a memorial of his passiō past He instituted the maner of the Sacrament then and taught hys Disciples also that they after vnderstode when he was risen agayne and not then as they neuer had capacitie to vnderstand hym when he spake of his death For they then imagined carnally of Christ as the Iewes yet do that Christ should neuer dye as he dyd not concernyng his Godhead but should lyue euer bodily as he now doth concernyng his resurrection Wherfore seyng that all the Doctors with one accorde cal the Sacrament so earnestly a sacrifice they cannot otherwise vnderstand them that they so say after the vse of the Scripture onely but because it is the memoriall of the sacrifice of his death blousheddyng Why should they then of right be offēded if we vnderstand the Doctours after the same maner whē they call it his body and bloud And that they so call it after the vse of the Scripture because that it is onely a memoriall of his body and bloud As concernyng the transubstantiation I thinke that such a speech was among the old Doctours though they that came after vnderstode thē amisse Their hartes were grosse through busiyng thē selues to much with worldly busines for the bread and wyne are but onely bread wine till the wordes of the Testament bee rehearsed ouer them then they ceasse to be any more bread wyne in the hartes of the true beleuers for the hart after these words once spoken thinketh onely vppon the couenaunt made in the body and bloud of Christ and through fayth eateth hys body and drinketh his bloud though the eyes and other sences perceaue nothyng but bread and wyne As when a man sometyme seeketh for a text in the Bible he seeth paper and iuke and the figure of letters yet his hart not once thinketh of any other thyng thē on the wordes and sence of his text And therof no doubt came vp this transubstantiation through false vnderstandyng Another thyng is this none of those wicked heretickes which denied Christ to be very God or any of them that denyed Christ to bee man or to haue a very body saue a phātasticall body dyd cast the true beleuers in the teth at any time of the fayth of Christes body present
in his creatures and because he can do thynges impossible for man or any other creature to do or to thinke how they shuld be done therfore he is called the Lord almighty but because to braule about such possibilitie or impossibilitie is the lust of Sophisters and also the desire of the deuill to quench the profession of our Baptisme and to wipe out the Image of Christ out of our hartes and a thyng endelesse Therfore I compte it wickednes to wade forth in it and to giue them that seeke an occasion perpetually to scold The negatiue may a man hold till they can proue the affirmatiue Moreouer if bread be the very body of Christ whether abidyng the very body still or transubstantiated and enioy the glorye of the soule of Christ and also of the Godhead It semeth impossible to be auoyded but that Christ was made man dyed Also bread whiche semeth to some a great inconuenience Howbeit that great proclamation of bread and also that high power of Priestes aboue all aūgels I admit also to anoide all braulyng but one reasō I haue vnto which I cleaue somewhat and it is this All that is betwene God and man in the Scripture is for mans necessitie and not for any nede that GOD hath therof And other spirituall profite can none haue by that fayth in the Sacrament then to be taught therby to beleue in Christ our Sauiour and to do good to his neighbour now is that belefe loue had as well rather better as is aboue proued without such fayth with it Ergo where the Scripture compelleth to no such beleue it is wickednes to make it a necessary article of our fayth to slay them that cā not thinke that it ought to be beleued Notwithstandyng all these reasons and the damnable Idolatrie which the Papistes haue cōmitted with the Sacrament yet whether they affirme the body and bloud to bee present with the bread and wyne or the bread and wyne to be turned and transubstantiated into the body and bloud I am therewith content for vnities sake if they will there cease and let him be there onely to restifie and consirme the Testament or couenaunt made in Christes bloud and body for which cause onely Christ instituted the Sacrament But and if they will rage further with their blind reasons of their subtill sophistrie deuilish Idolatrie say where Christes bloud is there is his body and where his body is there is his soule where his soule is there is his godhead the trimty the father the sonne the holy ghost and there men ought to pray and say O father whiche art present with thy sonne Christ vnder bread wyne or in forme of bread wyne If I say they so raue thē as the old Prophet for like Idolatrie demeth God to dwel in the temple or to haue pleasure in sacrifice of bloud of goates shepe calues Euē so deny I the body of Christ to be any more in the Sacrament then God was in the goldē calues which Ieroboham set vp to be prayed to the one in Bethell and the other in Dan for though God bee present euery where yet if heauen of heauens can not compasse hym to make hym a dwellyng place as the Scripture testifieth and much lesse the temple that was at Ierusalem how should he haue a dwellyng place in a litle wafer or crome of bread God dwelleth not in the temple neither did our fathers which were of the true faith in the old Testamēt pray to God as present in the temple but the name of God onely was in the tēple 3. of the Kinges 8. and his law and couenauntes and wonderfull deedes were therin writtē in signes and were there preached and testified continually of the true Priestes and Prophetes vnto the people the fathers of the true fayth came thether Furthermore of the seruent loue which they had towardes the lawes couenauntes of God For the whiche Prophets Salomō prayed so earnestly vnto the Lord God saying Here thou O God in heauen thy dwellyng place and do all that the straunger calleth to thee for that all nations of the earth may know the feare thy name as do this people Israell c. Read the third booke of kynges the 8. chapter when God delighted onely in the fayth of the offerer whiche beleued in God onely for all mercy taking the sacrifice for a sure token and earnest of the mercy of God certified by that signe that God loued them and was at one with them for Christes sake to come As we should be certified by the Sacrament of God with vs for Christes death that is past And Christe taught vs in our prayers to looke vp to heauen and say Our father which ar◠in heauē he him selfe in all his prayers did lift vp his eyes to heauē to his father and so did hee when he instituted the Sacrament and rehearsed the wordes of the couenaunt ouer bread wyne as it is written Mathew 26. Marke 14. Luke 22. 1. Cor. 11. in these wordes Iesus tooke bread c. Christ though he affirme him selfe to be the sonne of God his father to be in him yet he taught not his Disciples to direct the prayer to the father in him but vp to the father in heauen neither lift he vp his eyes or prayer to his father in the Sacramēt but to his father in heauē I know diuers diuers mē know me which loue me as I do thē yet if I should pray them whē I mete thē in the strete openly they would abhorre me but if I pray thē where they be appointed to mete me secretly they will here me accept my request Euē so though gods presēce be euery where yet will he be prayed so vp to the place onely where he shall see him where he would haue vs for to lōg for to be Moreouer if I grannt you that the bloud of Christ is in the cup it will folow that his body is there also neither when I graunt that his body is in the bread or vnder the forme of bread will it folow that his soule is ther to Christ made y e bread the Sacrament of his body onely wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his bloud So am I not bound or ought to affirme y t his bloud is there presēt And he did institute the wyne to be the Sacramēt of his bloud onely And happely it was red wyne y t more louely to represēt it Now as the wine in no similitude doth represēt the body so am I not boūd or ought to affirme that his body is there present Ye say that Christ is so mighty that though he stode mortall before his Disciples eyes yet he was able to make y e same body y t same time to be in the Sacrament immortall to be vnder euery litle peece of bread or of the Sacramēt though it be no greater
to me as vnto the very onely anker of his saluation Not that any man hath sene the father lest peradnenture ye mistake these wordes to heare and to learne as though they pertemed to the outward senses and not rather to the mynde and inward illuminyng of the soule For no man euer saw the father although he worke secretly vpon his hart so that what so euer hee willeth we must heare and learne No man I say seeth him but he that is sent of God as I sayd before of my selfe he it is that seeth the father Now therfore say I vnto you verely verely as playnly y t who so beleueth trusteth in me he hath life euerlasting Now haue ye y t summe of this my doctrine euē my very gospel y e whole tale of all my legacy and message wherfore I am sent into the world Had M. More vnderstode this short sentence who so beleueth in me hath life euerlastyng knowne what Paule with the other Apostles preached especially Paul being a yeare a halfe amōg the Corinthiās determinyng not neither presumyng to haue knowē any other thyng to be preached them as him selfe saith then Iesus Christ that he was crucified Had M. More vnderstand this point he should neuer haue thus blasphemed Christ his sufficiēt Scriptures neither haue so belyed his Euāgelistes holy Apostles as to say they wrote not all thinges necessary for our saluation but left out things of necessitie to be beleued makyng Gods holy testamēt insufficient vnperfite First reueled vnto our fathers written oft sence by Moyses and then by his Prophetes and at last written both by his holy Euangelistes and Apostles to But turne we to Iohn agayne let More mocke still lye to I am y ◠bread of life saith Christ And no mā denyeth y ◠our fathers elders did eate Manna in the desert yet are they dead But he that eateth of this bread that is to say beleueth in me he hath life euerlastyng For it is I that am this liuely bread which am come from heauen of whom who so eate by faith shal neuer dye Here therfore it is to be noted diligently y ◠Christ meaneth as euery mā may see by y ◠eating of this bread none other thyng then the belefe in him self offred vp for our sinnes whiche faith onely iustifieth vs. Whiche sentence to declare more playnly that he would haue it noted more diligently he repeteth it yet agayn saying It is I y t am the liuely bread which am come down frō heauē who so eateth of this bread shall liue euerlastingly And to put you cleare out of doubt I shall shew you in few wordes what this matter is by what wayes I must be the Sauiour redemer of the world to giue it this life so oft rehearsed therfore now take good heede This bread which I speake of so much shall giue it you it is myne owne flesh which I must lay forth pay for the life of y ◠world Here it is now manifest that he should suffer death in his own flesh for our redēptiō to geue vs this life euerlastyng Thus now may ye see how Christes fleshe which he called bread is the spirituall foode meate of our soules Whē our soules by fayth see God the father not to haue spared his onely so deare beloued sonne but to haue deliuered him to suffer that ignominious so paynefull death to restore vs to lyfe thē haue we eaten his flesh and dronken his bloud assured firmely of the fauour of God satisfied certified of our saluation After this communication that he sayd The bread whiche I shall geue you is my flesh whiche I shall pay for the lyfe of the world yet were the carnall Iewes neuer the wiser For their vnbelief and sturdy hatred would not suffer the very spirituall sence mynde of Christes wordes to enter into theyr hartes They could not see that Christes flesh broken and crucified and not bodely eaten should be our saluation and this spiritual meate as our soules to bee fed and certified of the mercy of God and forgiuenes of our sinnes thorough his passion and not for any eatyng of his fleshe with our teeth The more ignoraunt therfore fleshly they were the more fierce were they full of indignatiō striuyng one agaynst an other saying How may this felow geue vs his flesh to eate it They stoke fast yet in his fleshe before their eyes those fleshly Iewes Wherfore no maruell though they abhorred the bodely eatyng thereof although our fleshly Papistes beyng of the Iewes carnall opinion yet abhorre it not neither ceasse they dayly to crucifie and offer him vp agayne which was once for euer and all offred as Paule testifieth And euen here sith Christ came to teache to take away all doubt and to breake strife he might his wordes otherwise declared then he hath will here after expounde them haue soluted their question saying if he had so ment as More meaneth that he would haue bene conuayed and conuersed as our iugglers sleighly can conuaye him with a few woordes into a singyng loafe or els as the Thomisticall Papistes say bene inuisible with all his dimensioned body vnder the fourme of bread transubstantiated into it And after a like Thomisticall mystery the wyne transubstantiated to into hys bloud so that they should eate his flesh and drinke his bloud after their owne carnall vnderstanding but yet in an other forme to put away all grudge of stomacke Or sith S. Iohn if he had vnderstode his maisters minde and tooke vpon hym to write his wordes would leaue this Sermon vnto the world to be read he might now haue deliuered vs and them frō this doubt But Christ would not so satisfie theyr question but aunswered Verely verely I say vnto you except ye eate the fleshe of the sonne of man and drinke his bloud ye shall not haue that life in your selues He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath lyfe euerlasting and I shall styrre him vp in the last day for my flesh is very meate and my bloud the very drinke He saith not here that bread shal be transubstanciated or conuerted into his body nor yet the wyne into his bloud But now cōferre this saying to his purpose at the begynnyng where he had them worke for that meate that should neuer perish tellyng them that to beleue in hym whom God hath sent was the worke of God And who so beleueth in hym should neuer thyrst nor hunger but haue lyfe euerlastyng Conferre also this that foloweth and then shalt see it playne that his wordes be vnderstand spiritually of the belefe in his flesh crucified and his bloud shed for which belefe we bee promised euerlastyng lyfe hym selfe saying Who so beleueth in me hath life euerlastyng Here therfore their questiō how may this man giue vs his
where one I pray ye but also done by the commoÌ„ course of nature here in earth If they be done by the common course of nature so be they no miracles And some thynges made also by mans hand As one face beholded in diuers glasses and euery peece of one glasse broken into twenty c. Lorde how this pontiâ—icall Poete playeth his part Bicause as he saith we see many faces in many glasses therefore may one body be in many places as though euery shadow and similitude representing the body were a bodely substauÌ„ce But I aske More when hee seeth hys owne face in so many glasses whether all those faces that appeare in the glasses be his owne very faces hauing bodely substaunce skynne fleshe bone as hath that face which hath his very mouth nose eyen c. wherewith he faceth vs out the truth thus falsely with lyes And if they be all his very faces then in very deede there is one body in many places and he him selfe beareth as many faces in one hode But accordyng to his purpose eueÌ„ as they be no very faces nor those so many voyces sownes and similitudes multiplied in the ayre betwene the glasses or other obiect the body as the Philosopher proueth by naturall reason be no very bodyes no more is it Christes very body as they would make thee beleue in the bread in so many places at once But the bread broken and eaten in the Supper monisheth and putteth vs in remembraunce of his death and so exciteth vs to thankes giuyng to lande and prayse for the benefite of our redemption and thus wee there haue Christ present in the inward eye and sight of our fayth We eate his body and drinke hys bloud that is we beleue surely that hys bodye was crucified for our sinnes and hys bloud shed for our saluation At last note Christen reader that M. More in the third booke of his confutation of Tyndall the. CCxlix side to proue S. Iohns Gospell vnperfit and insufficient for leauing out of so necessary a point of our faith as he calleth the last Supper of Christ his MauÌ„dy sayth that Iohn speake nothyng at all of this SacrameÌ„t And now see againe in these his letters agaynst Frith how him selfe bringeth in Iohn the vj. chap. to impugne Frithes writyng and to make all for the Sacrament eueÌ„ thus My flesh is verely meate my bloud drinke Belike the man had there ouer shotte hym selfe foule the young man here causing him to put on his spectacles and poore better and more wisely with his old eyen vpoÌ„ S. Iohns Gospel to finde that thing there now written which before he would haue made one of his vnwritten verities As yet if he looke narowly hee shall espy that him self hath proued vs by Scripture in the xxxvij leafe of his Dialogue of quoth he and quoth I our Ladies perpetuall virginitie expoundyng non cogâ—osco id est non cognoscam whiche now written vnwritten veritie hee numbereth a litle before among his vnwritteÌ„ vanities Thus may ye see how this old holy vpholder of the popes church hys woordes fight agaynst him selfe into his own confusion in findyng vs forth his vnwritten written vanities verities I should say But returne we vnto the exposition of S. Iohn When the Iewes would not vnderstand the spirituall saying of the eating of Christes flesh and drinkyng of hys bloud so oft and so playnely declared he gaue them a strong stripe and made them more blynd for they so deserued it such are the secrete iudgementes of God addyng vnto all hys sayinges thus who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud abideth in me and I in him These wordes were spoken vnto these vnbeleuers into their farther obstinatioÌ„ but vnto the faithfull for theyr better instruction Now gather of this the contrary say who so eateth not my fleshe and drinketh not my bloud abydeth not in me nor I in him and ioyne this to the foresayd sentence Except ye eate the flesh of the sonne of maÌ„ drinke hys bloud ye haue no lyfe in you let it neuer fal froÌ„ thy minde Christen reader that faith is the lyfe of the righteous and that Christ is this lyuyng bread whom thou eatest that is to say in whoÌ„ thou beleuest For if our Papistes take eatyng drinkyng here bodely as to eate the naturall body of Christ vnder the forme of bread and to drinke hys bloud vnder the forme of wyne theÌ„ must all young children that neuer came to Gods borde departed all laye men that neuer drancke hys bloud be damned By loue we abyde in God and hee in vs loue foloweth faith in the order of our vnderstanding and not in order of succession of tyme if thou lookest vpon the selfe giftes and not on their fruites So that principally by faith wherby we cleaue to Gods goodnes and mercy we abide in God and God in vs as declare his wordes folowyng saying as the liuyng father sent me so liue I by my father And euen so he that eateth me shall lyue bycause of me or for my sake My father sent me whose will in all thinges I obey for I am his sonne And euen soverely must they that eate me that is beleue in me forme and fashion them after my exaÌ„ple mortifying their flesh chaunging their liuing or els they eate me in vayne and dissemble theyr belief For I am not come to redeme y t world onely but also to chaunge theyr lyfe They therefore that beleue in me shall traÌ„sforme their life after my example doctrine not after any mans traditioÌ„s This is the bread y t came froÌ„ heaueÌ„ as the effect it selfe declareth whoÌ„ who so eateth shall lyue euer But he y t eateth bodely bread lyueth not euer as ye may see of your fathers y t eate MaÌ„na yet are they dead It is not therfore any materiall bread nor bodely foode that may geue you life eternall These wordes did not onely offende them that hated Christ but also some of hys Disciples They were offended sayd the text and not merueyled as More trifleth out the truth which said This is an hard saying who may here this These Disciples yet stoke no lesse in Christes visible fleshe and in the barke of his wordes then did the other Iewes and as doth now More beleuing him to haue had spoken of his naturall body to be eaten with their teth Which offence Christ seyng sayd doth this offend you what then will ye say if ye see the sonne of maÌ„ ascend thether where he was before If it offend you to eate my flesh while I am here it shal much more offend you to eate it when my body shal be gone out of your sight ascended into heauen there sittyng on the right hand of my father vntill I come again as I weÌ„t that is to iudgement Here might Christ haue instructed his disciples in the truth of the
beleued in Christ to bee incarnated and to suffer death what els meant the poore woman of Lanane by eating then to beleue whē she aunswered Christ saying Ye say soth my Lorde But yet doe the little whelpes eate of the crummes that fall from their maisters table This dyd she aunswere in an allegory accordyng to Christes first aunswere vnto her she meanyng by y t eatyng of the crummes the belief of his woordes and Gospell to be scattered among the Gentils as Christ aunsweryng cōfirmed her meanyng saying O woman great is thy fayth He sayd not thou art a great eater and deuourer of bread Here it is playne that to eate in the Scripture is taken to beleue as Christ him selfe expoundeth it so oft and so plentuously And I am here compelled to inculke iterate it with so many wordes to satisfie if it were possible this carnall fleshvowerer and fleshly Iew. Now to examine and to discusse this matter more depely playnly I shall compare the old passeouer with the new and supper of the Lord. And to shew you how the figures correspond their verities I will begyn my comparison at Baptisme comparyng it with the Lordes Supper which be the two Sacramentes left vs now vnder the grace of the Gospell And afterward to set foorth both these Sacramentes playnly I wil compare Circumcision with Baptisme the passe lambe with Christes Supper We by Baptisme as we testified vn to the congregation our entryng into the body of Christ take here Christes body as doth Paule for his congregation to dye to be buried and to ryse with him to mortifie our flesh and to be reuiued in spirite to cast of the old man and to do vpon vs the new euen so by the thankes giuyng for so did the old Greke doctours cal this Supper at Gods bourde or at the Lordes Supper for so doth Paule call it we testifie the vnitie and communion of our hartes glued vnto the whole body of Christ in loue yea and that such loue as Christ at this his last Supper expressed what tyme he sayd his body should be broken and his bloud shed for the remission of our sinnes And to be short As Baptisme is the badge of our fayth so is the Lordes Supper the token of our loue to God our neighbours where vppon standeth the law and the Prophetes For the end of the precept is loue out of a pure hart and good conscience and fayth vnfayned So that by baptisme we be initiated cōsigned vnto the worship of one God in one fayth And by the same faith and loue at the Lordes Supper we shew our selues to cōtinue in our possession to bee incorporated and to be the very members of Christes body Both these Sacramentes were figured in Moyses law Baptisme was figured by Circumcision the Lordes Supper by the eatyng of the passelambe Where lyke as by Circumcisiō the people of Israell were rekened to be Gods people seueral from the Gētiles so be we now by Baptisme rekened to bee consigned vnto Christes Church seuerall frō Iewes paynyms c. And as their passeouer that is to say their solēne feast yearely in eatyng their passelambe was an outward token of their perseueraunce in their religion and in remembraunce of their passage out of Egypt into the lande of Chanaan so is now the eatyng of the Lordes Supper whiche Christ and Paule called our passeouer a token of our perseueraunce in our Christen profession at Baptisme and also thankes giuyng with that ioyfull remēbraunce of our redemption frō sinne death and hell by Christes death Of the figure of this Supper our new passeouer thus it is written After ye be entred into that land whiche the Lord God shall giue you accordyng to his promise ye shall kepe this ceremonie And when your children aske you what Religion is this ye shall aunswere them It is the sacrifice of the passyng ouer of the Lord when the Lord passed foorth by the houses of the children of Israell in Egypt smityng the Egyptiās and deliuering our houses This eatyng therfore of the passe lambe was the figure of the Lordes Supper ▪ whiche figure when the houre was come y ◠he would it to ceasse and giue place vnto the veritie as the shadow to vanish away at the presence of the body He sayd thus with a feruent desire do I long to eate this passeouer with you ere I suffer Agayne let vs compare the figure with the truth the old passeouer with the new and diligētly consider the propertie of speakyng in and of either of thē Let vs expende the succession imitation and tyme how the new succeding the old mediatour Christ betwen both sitting at the Supper celebrating both with his presence did put out the old and bryng in the new For there is in either of them such like composition of wordes such affinitie and proportiō of spech such similitude and propertie in them both the new so correspōdyng in all thynges to the old that the old declareth the new what is it wherfore it was instituted and what is the very vse therof And to begyn at Circumcision the figure of Baptisme ye shall vn derstand that in such rites and Sacramētes there are two thinges to be considered that is to wit The thyng and the signe and of thyng The thynge is it wherfore the signe is instituted to signifie it as in Circumcision the thyng is the couenaunt to be of the people of God and the signe is the cuttyng of the foreskinne of the preuy mēber In the passeouer the thing was the remēbraunce with thankes giuyng for the deliueraunce out of the hard seruitude of Egypt but the signe was the lambe rosted with such ceremonies as were there prescribed them So in baptisme The thyng is the promise to be of the Church of Christ the signe is the dippyng into the water with the holy wordes In our Lordes Supper the very thing is Christ promised and crucified and of faith with thankes giuing vnto the father for his sonne giuen to suffer for vs. But the signe is the dealyng and distributing or reaching forth of the bread and wyne with the holy wordes of our Lord spoken at his supper after he had thus dealt the bread wyne vnto his Disciples And here is it diligently to be noted That in all such rites ceremonies or Sacramentes of God thus instituted these two thinges that is to witte the thyng signified and the signe that signifieth be concurraunt and inseparable It is the common vse and propertie of spech in the Scripture to call the signe the thyng As is Circumcision called the couenaunt Euery manchild must be circumcised that my couenaunt might be in your flesh for a perpetuall bande And yet was it onely but the outward signe seale of the couenaūt that the sede of Abraham should be his especial chosen people that he would
but inuisible and still bodely present hee would neuer haue couered hym selfe with the cloude shewyng them and testifying also by those ij men his very bodely AsceÌ„tion out of their sightes We may not make of hys very bodely AscentioÌ„ such an inuisible iugglyng cast as our Papistes fayne Fashionyng and fayning Christ a body now inuisible now in many places at once theÌ„ so great and yet in so litle a place not decerned of any of our senses now glorified now vnglorified now passible and then impassible and I wote neare what they imagine and make of their maker and all without any woorde yea cleane agaynst all the wordes of holy Scripture For surely in this their imagination and so saying they bryng in a fresh the heresie of that great heretike Marcian which said that Christ tooke but a phantasticall body And so was neither verely borne nor suffered nor rose nor ascended verely neither was he very man Which heresie Tertulian confuteth Christ toke verely our nature such a passible and mortall body as we beare about with vs saue that he was without all maner of synne In such a body he suffered verely and rose agayne from death in such a glorified body now immortall c. as euery one of vs shall ryse at the generall iudgement It is appropried onely to hys Godhead to be euery where and not to bee circumscribed nor conteined in no one place And as for our Papistes prophane voyde voyces his body to be in many places at once indifinitiue incircumscriptiue non per modum quaÌ„ti neque localiter c. which includeth in it selfe contradiction of which Paule warned Timothe callyng them the oppositions of a false named science for that theyr Scholasticall Diuinitie must make obiections agaynst euery truth be it neuer so playne with pro contra whiche science many that professe it sayth Paul haue erred from the fayth as for this contention and battayle about wordes profitable for nothyng els but to subuert the hearers I care not for them For I haue the almighty testimony of the euerlastyng word of God ready to soyle all theyr madde and vnreasonable reasons to wype them cleane away and to turne them into their own confession And for bycause they hold them so fast by Paule I shall loose theyr hold expoundyng the Lordes Supper after Paule which addeth immediatly vnto the cup this y t Luke there left foorth Doe ye this into my remembraunce This doth Paule repete so ofte to put vs in minde that these thankes giuing and Supper is the coÌ„memoration and the memoriall of Christes death Wherfore after all hee repeteth it yet agayne the thyrde tyme saying So oft as ye shall eate this bread hee calleth it still bread euen after the Popes consecration and drinke the cuppe he sayth not drinke this bloude see that ye gyue thaÌ„kes be ioyous and preach the death of the Lord for so much signifieth Anâ—â—â—ciate in this place vntill hee come that is to say froÌ„ the tyme of his death and Ascention vntill hee come agayne to iudgement Furthermore sayeth Paule who so eateth this bread he calleth it still bread or drinke of the cuppe of the Lord vnworthely is giltie of the body and bloud of the Lord. The body and bloud of the Lorde Paule calleth here the congregation assembled together to eate the Lordes Supper For they are his body and bloud which are redemed with his body and bloud as he said in the x. chapter before The cup of thankes giuyng whiche we receiue with thaÌ„kes is it not the felowshyp of the bloud of Christ The bread whiche we breake is it not the felowshyp of the body of Christ For we beyng many together are one bread and one body Loe here Paule expoundyng hym selfe vseth the same forme of spech that is vsed in these woordes This is my body takyng is for signifieth We are one bread one body that is to say we are signified by one loafe of bread to be one body he sheweth the cause addyng because we be all partakers of one lofe or peece of bread And in the xij chapter folowing he sayth plainly ye be the body of Christ and his particular members and in the first to the Ephesians God dyd set Christ to be the head ouer all vnto hys congregation whiche is his body c. And bicause the comparison in the x. chapter betwene the Lordes borde and his cup and the deuils borde and his cup do declare this matter I shall recite Paules wordes saying ye may not drinke the cup of the Lord and the cuppe of the deuill both together Ye may not bee partakers of the Lordes borde the deuils borde both at once The deuils borde and hys cuppe was not his body and bloud but the earing and drinkyng before their images and Idols as dyd the heathen in the worshyppe and thankes of theyr Gods Of the which thyng thou mayst gather what Paul meant by the Lordes borde and his cuppe Now let vs returne to Paule in the xâ— chapter They eate this bread and drinke of this cup vnworthely that come not vnto this borde with such faith and loue as they professed at their Baptisme They eate vnworthely that thrust them selues in among this congregation hauyng not the loue that this SacrameÌ„t and signe of vnity teacheth and signifieth Which maner of people Paule in y e same chapter rebuketh and bendeth all his Sermon agaynst them for that they were conteÌ„tious and came together not for the better but for the woorse So that their commyng together which should haue bene a token of fayth and loue was turned into the occasion and matter of disscution and strife bycause euery man dyd eate as Paule sayth hys owne supper and not the Lordes supper wherein the bread and drinke is common as well to the poore as to the riche But here the rich disdayned the poore and would not tarye for them So that some as the rich went theyr way dronken and full and the poore departed hungry and dry whiche was a token of no equall distribution of the bread and drinke and that the rich contemned the poore and so became sclauÌ„derous and giltie of the body bloud of Christ that is to witte of the poore congregation redemed with Christes body and bloud Thus they that came together appearyng to haue had that loue whiche the Supper signified and had it not vttered them selues by this conteÌ„tious and vnlouyng dealyng not to be members of Christes body but rather giltie and hurtfull vnto them As if a souldier of our aduersaries part shoulde come in among vs with our Lordes badge hauyng not that hart fayth and loue to our captaine that we haue we would if we espyed it by any token take him for a spye and betrayer rather then one of vs. Let a man therefore sayth Paule proue him selfe well before whether he hath this fayth to Christ
bloud Which precepte of the lawe and bycause that bloud is lyfe we affirme it to be set like as many other almost innumerable sacramentes of those Scriptures full of signes and figures of the preachyng to come whiche now is declared by our Lord Iesu Christ c. And I may interprete that precept to bee layed in a signe For the Lord doubted not to say This is my body when hee gaue the signe of his body And euen so is the bloud lyfe and the stone was Christ And yet when he sayd these wordes he sayd not the stone signified Christ but he sayd the stone was Christ whiche lest they should be taken carnally hee calleth it spirituall that is to say he teacheth it to bee vnderstand spiritually Where is now Mores litteral sense and materiall meate Now shall ye heare Chrisostome Nihil sensibile tradidit Christus licet dederit panem vinum non quod panis vinum non sint sensibilia sed quod in illis mentem haerere noluit Nam in suum corpus quod est panis vitae subuehit dicens Hoc est corpus meum perinde ac dicat Hoc licet panis sit significat tamen tibi corpus Thus it is in Englishe Christ geuyng bread and wyne gaue no sensible thyng not that bread and wine be not sensible but that he would not our mynde to sticke still in them For hee lifted vs vp into hys bodye which is the bread of lyfe saying This is my body as though he should say Though this be but bread yet it signifieth vnto thee my body Now iudge thou ChristeÌ„ reader whether M. More reporteth right of this maÌ„ that alledgeth these holy Doctours or no. Now haue ye the pure vnderstandyng of the wordes of the Lordes supper confirmed with the old holy Doctours That this is my body is as much to say as this signifieth my body And this is my bloud is this signifieth my bloud But yet was there neuer such maner of speaking in the scripture This is that that is to say This is conuerted and transubstanciated into that Or this is conteined in that the thyng conuerted and chaunged kepyng still her forme qualities quantities c. As to say This is my body that is to say This bread is conuerted into my body the bread abydyng still in his fashion tast colour waight c. For Christ when hee conuerted water into wyne dyd not leaue the fourme colour and tast still in the water For so had it bene no chaungyng But let our couetous conuerters choppe and chaunge bread and wyne till we there feele see tast neither bread nor wyne and then will we beleue them so they bryng for them the word of God For as for their false iugglyng we feele it at our fingers ende we see it had we but halfe an eye we tast it at our touÌ„gs end and know it with all our wyttes and vnderstandyng so manifestly that we perceiued them openly long agoe to be the very Antichristes of whom Christ and his Apostles warned vs to come in this last tyme. And if they say That this conuersion is made by miracles Then must euery one of them as hee say a Masse make vs many a miracle the very markes of M. Mores Churche For it is oue great miracle that Christs body should come so sodenly inuisible and so oft out of heauen and that such a miracle as the worde of God neuer knew An other that so great a body should be conteyned in so litle a place and that one body should be at once in so many places and two bodyes in one place An other that it is eaten neither the cater feelyng it nor the body eaten sufferyng nor feelyng the teeth of the eater With as many moe maruelous like miracles or rather absurdities of the bread and wyne that there must be the forme colour tast wayght broken c. and yet neither to be bread nor wyne in our belefe except we will be burned of theÌ„ bycause we beleue not their iugglyng castes O mischieuous miracle makers O cruell conuerters O bloudy butchers But hearke Christen reader and I shall learne thee to knowe Christes playne and true miracles from the sleighty iuggling of these crafty coÌ„neyers Christ would neuer haue done miracle had men beleued hym onely by hys woordes but when hee sayd first these wordes This is my body no maÌ„ doubted at them no man was in any vnbeleue of them wherfore these wordes must needes bee playne single and pure without miracle as these The iij. braunches are thre dayes without any subtile transubstantiation such insensible conuersion or any false miracle Christ wrought all his miracles for the glory of God to declare hym selfe both God and man so that all Christes miracles were coÌ„prehended vnder mans sences or commoÌ„ wyttes which bryng in such knowledge vnto the vnderstaÌ„dyng As when he chaunged water into wyne the miracle was first receiued with the sight open at the eye tasted with the mouth and so conuayed vnto the vnderstandyng And now though we neither see nor tast that miracle yet we heare it see it read it and so vnderstaÌ„d that it was once a miracle done of Christ wheÌ„ he restored the sight to the blynd healed the lame clensed the leprose reared the dead all was seen heard and so comprehended vnder our most swete senses that his very enemyes were compelled to coufesse them for miracles But our miracle makers that make dayly so oft and so many are so farre from this cleare poynt that their miracles in this matter be not neither shal be coÌ„tained nor compreheÌ„ded vnder any of our fiue wittes but they rather delude and deceyue both sight tast feelyng hearyng and smellyng ye our fayth and vnderstandyng to Beware therefore of these mischieuous miracle makers for theyr owne glory and profite and will kill thee to if thou beleuest not their lyes Beware I say of those Marchauntes that will sell the wares which they will not suffer thee to see nor to tast nor to touch but when they shewe the white thou must beleue it is blacke If they geue the bread thou must beleue it without any word of thy fayth that it is Christes body and that of their owne makyng If thou tast see and feele it bread yet thou must say it is none though the Scripture calleth it bread xx tymes Beware beware I say of Antichrist whose commyng sayth Paule He is come alredy sayth Iohn now are there many Antichristes shall be after the workyng of Sathan with an almighty power with false signes and wouders lying miracles with all deceite of vnrighteousnes c. To be to curious in so playne a Sacrament and signe to cauill Christes cleare wordes with sophisticall soâ—…mes and to tryfull out the truth with tauntes and mockes as M. More doth is no Christen maner And if our Papistes and Scholasticall Sophisâ—â—râ— will obiect and
make aunswere to thus Supper of the Lorde bringyng â—o â—or them their vnwritteÌ„ wordes dedes dreames for we haue compelled More with shame to flitte froÌ„ the Scripture strewed with their vame straunge termes which Paul damneth and geueth Timothe warning of I shall by gods grace so set the almighty word of God against them that all Christen shall see falshead and deceite in this SacrameÌ„t and so disclose theyr deuilish doctrine and fleighty iugglyng that all that can read Englishe shall see the trouth of Gods word openly beare downe their vnwritten lyes For it is verely the thyng that I desire euen to be written agaynst in this matter for I haue the solutions of all theyr obiections ready And know right well that the more they styrre this Sacrament the broder shall theyr lyes be spread the more shal theyr falsehead appeare and the more gloriously shall the trouth triumph as it is to see this day by long contention in this same and other lyke Articles which the Papistes haue so long abused and how More hys lyes vtter the truth euery day more and more For had he not come beggyng for the Clergy from Purgatory with his supplication of soules and Rastel and Rochester had they not so wysely played theyr partes Purgatory peraduenture had serued them yet another yeare neither had it so soone haue bene quenched nor the poore soule and Proctour there bene with his bloudy Byshop ChristeÌ„â—atte so farre coniured into hys owne Vtopia with a sachell about hys necke to gather for the proude Priestes in Synagoga Papistica When Christ was ascended into heauen and had sent his Apostles the spirite of truth to leade them into all truth perteinyng vnto our saluation euen â—nto hym that sayd I am the truth of whiche truth hee instructed them after his resurrection Luke xxiiij and they had preached the same truth nowe at IerusaleÌ„ Actes ij at which preachyng there were that receiued their wordes and were Baptised about iij. M. hys Apostles remembryng how their maistâ—â— Christ at his last Supper did institute and leaue them this holy Sacrament of his body and bloud to be celeâ—â—ated and done in his remembraunce among such as had receiued his Gospell were Baptised had professed hys fayth and would perseuer in his Religion dyd now in this first congregation celebrate the Lordes Supper breakyng the bread and eatyng it as Christ dyd teach them which Supper Luke and Paule called afterward the breakyng of the bread As Actes ij saying That they which gladly had now received Peters acte were baptised were perseuering in the doctrine of the Apostles and in the communioÌ„ and in the breakyng of the bread and in prayer whiche Sacrament was now a token of the perseueraunce in theyr Christen Religion now professed Of this breakyng of bread Luke writyng of Paule commyng vnto Troades sayth also that their vpon a Sabboth day when the Disciples were come together vnto the breakyng of the bread Paule made a Germon duryng to mydnight c. And that this was no common nor prophane vse but an heauenly Sacrament and a reuerent rite and vsage the circumstaunces of the action declare both in Luke and Paule shewyngit to be the very institutioÌ„ that Christ ordeyned at his Supper Paule thus recitynge this breakyng of the breake saying The bread whiche we breade is it not the felowshyp of the body of Christ y t is to say doth it not signifie vs to be the body of Christ that is hys congregation and people as doth the wordes folowyng declare Paule addyng the cause saying For we beyng many are all together siguified by the one loafe to be one body for that we be partakers of the same bread Also before he calleth in the same Supper the cup of thankes geuyng the felowshyp of the bloud of Christ that is to say the congregation redemed with Christes bloud The holy Sacrament therefore would God it were restored vnto the pure vse as y e Apostles vsed in it their tyme. Would God the secular princes which should be the very pastours and head rulers of their congregations coÌ„mitted vnto their cure would first coÌ„maunde or suffer the true preachers of Gods woorde to preache the Gospell purely and playnly with discrete libertie and constitute ouer eche particulare Parish such Curates as caÌ„ and would preach the word and that once or twise in the Weeke appoyntyng vnto theyr flocke certeyne dayes after their discretion and zeale to Godward to come together to celebrate the Lordes Supper At the which assemble the Curate would propone and declare them first this texte of Paule i. Corinthians xj So oft as ye shall eate this bread and drinke of this cuppe see that ye be ioyous prayse and giue thankes preachyng the death of the Lord c. whiche declared and euery one exhorted to prayer he would preach them purely Christ to haue dyed and bene offered vpon the altare of the Crosse for theyr redemption whiche onely oblation to be sufficieÌ„t sacrifice to peace the fathers wrath and to purge all the sinnes of the world Then to excite them with humble diligence euery man vnto the knowledge of hym selfe hys sinnes and to beleue and trust to the forgyuenesse in Christes bloud and for this so incomparable benefite of our redemption whiche were sold bondemen to sinne to geue thankes vnto God the father for so mercyfull a deliueraunce through the death of Iesu Christ euery one some singyng and some saying deuoutly one or other Psalme or prayer of thankes gyuyng in the mother toung Then the bread and wyne set before them in the face of the Churche vpon the table of the Lord purely and honesty layed let hym declare to the people the significations of those sensible signes what the action and deede moueth teacheth and exhorteth them vnto and that the bread and wyne be no prophane common signes but holy Sacramentes reuerently to be considered and receiued with a depe fayth and remembraunce of Christes death and of the shedyng of his bloud for our sinnes those sensible thynges to represente vs the very body and bloude of Christ so that while euery man beholdeth with his corporall eye those sensible Sacraments the inward eye of his fayth may see beleue stedfastly Christ offred and dying vppon the Crosse for his sinnes how his body was broken and his bloud shed for vs and hath giuen hym selfe whole for vs hym selfe to be all ours and what soeuer he dyd to serue vs as to bee made for vs of hys father our righteousnes our wisedome holynesse redemption satisfaction c. Then let this preacher exhort them louyngly to draw neare vnto this table of the Lord and that not onely bodely but also their hartes purged by fayth garnished with loue and innoceney euery man to forgyue eche other vnfaynedly and to expresse or at least wise to endeuour them to folow that loue whiche Christ dyd set before our
eyes at his last Supper when he offered hym selfe willyngly to dye for vs hys enemyes Whiche incomparable loue to commende bryng in Paules Argumentes so that this hys flocke may come together and be ioyned into one body one spirite and one people This done let hym come downe and accompanyed honestly with other Ministers come forth reuerently vnto the Lordes table the congregatioÌ„ now set round about it and also in their other conuenient scates the pastour exhorting them all to pray for grace faith and loue whiche all this Sacrament signifieth and putteth them in mynde of Then let there be read apertely and distinctly the vi Chapter of Iohn in their mother toung Wherby they may clearely vnderstand what it is to eate Christes flesh and to drinke his bloud This done and some brief prayer and prayse song or read let one or other minister read the xj chapter of the first to the Corinthians that the people might perceiue clearely of those woordes the mistery of this Christes Supper and wherfore he did institute it These with such lyke preparations and exhortations had I would euery man present should professe the Articles of our fayth openly in our mother toung and confesse his sinnes secretly vnto God praying intierly that hee would now vouchsafe to haue mercy vpon hym receiue his prayers glewe hys hart vnto hym by fayth and loue encrease his fayth geue hym grace to forgyue and to loue his neighbour as him selfe to garnish hys lyfe with purenes and innocency and to confirme hym in all goodnes and vertue Then againe it behoueth the curate to warne and exhorte euery man deepely to consider and expende with hym selfe the signification substauÌ„ce of this Sacrament so that he sit not downe an hipocrite and a dissembler sith God is searcher of hart and raines thoughtes and affectes and see that he come not to the holy table of the Lorde without that fayth whiche he professed at hys Baptisme and also that loue which the Sacrament preacheth and testifieth vnto hys hart lest hee now founde gilty of the body and bloud of the Lord that is to wytte a dissembler with Christes death and sclaunderous to the congregregation the body bloud of Christ receiue his own damnation And here let euery man fall downe vppon hys knees saying secretly with all deuotion their Pater noster in English theyr Curate as example kneelyng downe before them Which done let hym take the bread and eft the wyne in the sight of the people hearing him with a loude voyce with godly grauitie and after a Christen religious reuerence rehearsyng distinctly y e wordes of the Lordes Supper in their mother toung And theÌ„ distribute it to the ministers which taking the bread with great reuerence will deuide it to the congregation euery man breakyng and reaching it forth to hys next neighbour and member of the mistike body of Christ other ministers folowyng with the cuppes powring forth dealing them the wyne all together thus â—â—yng now partakers of one bread and one cuppe the chyng thereby signified and preached printed fast in their hartes But in this meanâ— while must the minister or pastour be readyng the communicatioÌ„ that Christ had with his Disciples after his Supper beginnyng at the washing of their feete so readyng till the bread wyne be eaten and dronken and all the action done And then let them all fall downe on their knees geuing thankes highly vnto God the father for this benefite and death of his sonne whereby now by faith euery man is assured of remission of his sinnes as this blessed Sacrament had put them in mynde and preached it them in this outward action and Supper This done let euery man commende and geue them selues whole to God and depart I would haue hereto put my name good Reader but I know well that thou regardest not who writeth but what is writteÌ„ thou estemest the word of the veritie and not of the authour And as for M. More whom the veritie most offendeth and doth but mocke it out when he cannot soyle it he knoweth my name well inough For the deuill his gardian as him selfe sayth commeth euery day into Purgatory if there be any day at all with his haynous and enuious laughter gnashing his teeth and grynnyng tellyng the Proctour with hys Popes prisoners what soeuer is here done or written against them both his person and name to And he is now I dare say as great with his gardian as euer he was If any man tel ye loe here is Christ or there is hee beleue hym not For there shall aryse false Christes false annoynted giuyng great miracles Take hede I haue told ye before if they therefore tell ye loe hee is in the desert go not forth loe hee is in the preuy pixe beleue it not FINIS A diligent and necessary Index or Table of the most notable thynges matters and woordes contayned in these workes of Master William Tyndall The letter A. signifieth the first columne and B. the second columne of the same side A. A Aron added nothyng to Moses law Representeth Christ euery true preacher 125. a Abbottes and Bysshops kepe MoÌ„kes in ignoraunce 361. a Abhominable blasphemie 330. a Abiectes from God who 25. a AbrahaÌ„ 303. his childreÌ„ haue his faith 45. a. and are the childreÌ„ of faith 63. a Abraham how iustified 334. a AbstineÌ„ce outward is hypocrisis 76. b. for common wealth sake is conunendable 228. a Abstainyng from Images 22. a AbsolutioÌ„ of the Popes Legate 181. b Abuse of Abbeyes 359. b. of confirmatioÌ„ 277. a. of Images 271. a. of scriptures and Sacraments by Papistes 13. b. 339. b. 427. b. 365. b. in prayer 249. b Actual sinne washed away in Christes bloud 32. a Adam must be ouerthrowen Christ put on 90. b Adelstone kyng 102. b Admonition 207. b. to blynde guides to rulers 341. a. to ministers 427. b. to More 251. a. to al subjectes 376. b to votaries 21. a Adrian the first Pope 349. a Adrian the ij and iij. 351. a Aduauncement of the Pope 348. b. of the Clergy 347. a Aduengers robbe God of his honour 178. b Aduoutry 205. a Adultery of Dauid 169. b Aduersaries to Christ knowen by their deedes 102. a Aduersitie how profitable 120. a Affinitie of the passeouer and Christes Supper 467. a Afflicted in this World wherewith coÌ„forted 190. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 253. a Age to be preferred before youth 311. a. to be honored 345. b Agreement in doctrine betwene Papistes and Phariseis 17. b. and in Scriptures 265. a Albe 277. b Alchouse a pulpit for Papistes 2. a Allegories 166. a. not agreable to the text are false 167. b. their right vse 167. a. they proue nothing cause blindnes Well to be weyed How to be vnderstode 14. a. they are no sense of Scripture 167. a Almosse 217. a. and 228. a. What in signifieth 83. b. How truly bestowed 74. b Almose of
are infinite other thynges wherein hee contrarieth Christ in so much that if it be diligētly examined I thinke there is no word that Christ spake but the other hath taught or made a law agaynst it Howbeit for to auoyde tediousnes we shall leaue them vnto your owne iudgement for they are soone searched out espyed Iudge Christē reader all these things with a simple eye be not parcially addict to the one nor to the other But Iudge them by the Scripture And knowledge that to be the truth which Gods word doth alow auoydyng all other doctrine for it springeth of Sathan be not ashamed to confesse poore Christ and to take him for thy head before these rauenous Wolues for then shall he cōfesse thée agayn before his father the aungelles in heauen Then shalt thou bee inheritour with Iesu Christe And the faythfull sonne of thy father whiche is in heauen to whom be all glory eternally Amen ¶ Here endeth the Antithesis betwene Christe and the Pope A booke made by Iohn Frith prisoner in the Tower of London aunsweryng vnto M. Mores letter which he wrote against the first litle treatise that Iohn Frith made concernyng the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ vnto which booke are added in the ende the articles of hys examination before the Bishops of London Winchester and Lyncolne in Paules Churche at London for which Iohn Frith was condemned and after burned in Smithfield without Newgate the fourth day of Iuly Anno. 1533. ¶ The Preface of this booke GRace and increase of knowledge from God the father through our Lorde Iesus Christ be with the Christen reader and with all them that loue the Lord vnfaynedly Amen I chaunced beyng in these parties to be in company with a Christen brother which for his commēdable conuersation and sober behauiour might better be a Byshop then many that weare miters if the rule of S. Paule were regarded in their election This brother after much communication desired to know my mynde as touchyng the Sacrament of the body and bloud of our sauiour Christ Which thing I opened vnto hym accordyng to the gift that God had geuen me First I proued vnto hym that it was no article of our fayth necessary to be beleued vnder payne of damnation Then I declared that Christ had a naturall body euen as myne is sauyng sinne and that it could no more bee in two places at once thē myne cā Thirdly I shewed him that it was not necessarie that the wordes should so be vnderstand as they sound But that it might be a phrase of Scripture as there are innumerable After that I shewed him certaine phrases and maner of speakynges And that it was well vsed in our English toung and finally I recited after what maner they might receiue it according to Christes institutiō not fearyng the froward alteration that the Priests vse contrary to the first forme and institution When I had sufficiently published my mynde hee desired me to entitle the sūme of my wordes and write them for hym because they seemed ouerlong to be well reteined in memorie And albeit I was loth to take the matter in hand yet to fulfill his instant intercession I tooke vpon me to touche this terrible tragedie and wrote a treatise whiche beside my paynfull imprisonmēt is like to purchase me most cruell death which I am ready and glad to receiue with the spirite and inward man although the fleshe be frayle when soeuer it shall please God to lay it vpon me Notwithstādyng to say the truth I wrote it not to the intēt that it should haue ben published For then I would haue touched the matter more earnestly and haue written as well of the spirituall eating drinking which is of necessitie as I dyd of the carnall which is not so necessarie For the treatise that I made was not expedient for all men albeit it were sufficient for them whom I tooke in hand to instruct For they knew the spirituall and necessarie eatyng and drinkyng of his body bloud which is not receiued with the teth and bellye but with the eares and faith and onely neded instructiō in the outward eating whiche thing I therfore onely declared But now it is cōmon abroad and in many mēs mouthes in so much that M. More whiche of late hath busied hym selfe to medle in all such matters of what zeale I will not define hath sore labored to confute it but some mē thinke that he is ashamed of his part and for that cause doth so diligently suppresse the woorke whiche he printed For I my selfe saw the worke in Print in my Lord of Winchesters house vpon S. Stephens day last past But neither I neither all the frēdes I could make might attaine any copie but onely one written copie whiche as it seemed was drawen out in great hast notwithstandyng I can not well iudge what the cause should bee that his boke is kept so secret But this I am right sure of that he neuer touched the foundation that my treatise was builded vpon And therefore sith my foundation standeth so sure and inuincible for els I thinke verely he would sore haue laboured to haue vndermined it I will thereupon builde a litle more and also declare that his ordinaūce is to slender to breake it downe although it were set vppon a woorse foundation ¶ The foundation of that litle treatise was that it is no article of our fayth necessary to be beleued vnder payne of damnation that the Sacrament should be the naturall body of Christ which thyng is proued on this maner FIrste we must all acknowledge that it is no article of our fayth which can saue vs nor which we are bound to beleue vnder the paine of eternal damnation For if I should beleue that hys very naturall body both flesh and bloud were naturally in the bread and wine that should not saue me seyng many beleue that and receiue it to their damnation for it is not his presence in the bread that can saue me but his presence in my hart through faith in his bloud which hath washed out my sinnes and pacified y t fathers wrath toward me And agayne if I doe not beleue his bodely presence in the bread and wyne that shall not damne me but the absence out of my hart thorough vnbelefe Now if they would here obiect that though it be truth that the absēce out of the bread could not damne vs yet are we bounde to beleue it because of gods word which who beleueth not as much as in him lyeth maketh God a lyer And therfore of an obstinate mynde not to beleue hys word may be an occasion of damnation To this we may answere that we beleue Gods worde and knowledge that it is true but in this we dissent whether it be true in the sence that we take it in or in the sence that ye take it in And we say agayne that though
sayth but because the Scripture of God doth so conclude determine I take not Luther for such an author that I thinke hee can not erre but I thinke verely that he both may erre and doth erre in certayne poyntes although not in such as concerne saluation and damnation for in these blessed be God all these whom ye call heretickes do agrée right well And likewise I do not alow this thing because Wickleffe Oecolampadius Tyndall and Zwinglius so say but be cause I sée them in that place more purely expoūde the Scripture and that the processe of the text doth more fauour their sentence And where you say that I affyrme it to be bread still as Luther doth the same I say agayne not because Luther so sayth but because I cā proue my wordes true by scripture reason nature and doctors Paule calleth it bread saying the bread whiche we breake is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ For we though we be many are yet one body and one bread as many as are partakers of one bread And againe he sayth as often as ye eate of thys bread or drinke of thys cuppe you shall shewe the Lordes death vntill he come Also Luke calleth it bread in the Actes saying they continued in the fellowship of the Apostles and in breaking of bread and in prayer Also Christ called the cuppe the fruite of the vyne saying I shall not from hence forth drinke of the fruite of the vyne vntill I drink that new in the kingdome of my father Furthermore nature doth teach you that both y ◠bread and wine continue in their nature For the bread mouleth if it be kept long yea and wormes bréede in it And the poore mouse will runne away with it and desire no other meate to her dinner which are euident inough that there remayneth bread Also the wine if it were reserued would waxe sower as they confesse them selues and therefore they housell the laye people but with one kinde onely because the wine can not continue nor be reserued to haue ready at hand whē nede were And surely as if there remayned no bread it could not mould nor waxe full of wormes Euē so if there remained no wine it could not waxe sower and therefore it is but false doctrine that our prelates so long haue published Finally that there remayneth bread might be proued by the authoritie of many doctors which call it bread and wine as Christ and his Apostles did And though some sophisters would wrast their sayings and expound them after their phantasie yet shall I alleage them one doctor which was also Pope of Rome that maketh so plaine with vs that they shall be compelled with shame to hold their tongues For Pope Gelasius writeth on thys maner Certe sacramenta quae sumimus corporis sanguinis Christi diuine res sunt propterea per illa participes facti sumus diuinae naturae tamē nō desinit esse substantia vel panis vini sed permanent in suae proprietate naturae Et certe imago similitudo corporis sanguinis Christi in actione misteriorum celebrantur That is to say Surely the sacramentes of the body and bloud of Christ are a godly thing and therfore through them are we made partakers of the godly nature And yet doth it not cease to be the substance or nature of bread and wine but they continue in the propertie of their owne nature and surely the image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the acte of the mysteries Thys I am sure was the olde doctrine which they can not auoyde And therefore with the Scripture nature and fathers I will conclude that there remaineth the substaunce and nature of bread and wine And where ye say that we affyrme it to be nothing els I dare say that ye vntruely report on vs all And here after I will shewe you what it is more then bread And where ye say that it is méetely well knowen what maner of folke they be and that God hath in part with his open vengeance declared I aunswere that master Wickliffe was noted while he was liuing to be a man not onely of most famous doctrine but also of a very sincere life and conuersation Neuerthelesse to declare your malicious mindes and vengeable hartes as men say xv yeare after he was buryed you tooke hym vp and burnt hym which facte declared your furye although he felt no fire but blessed be God which hath geuen such tyrantes no further power but ouer thys corruptible body For the soule ye can not binde nor burne but God may blesse where you curse and curse where you blesse And as for Oecolampadius whō you also call Huskyn his most aduersaries haue euer commended his conuersation and godly life which when God had appoynted hys tyme gaue place vnto nature as euery mā must and dyed of a canker And Tyndall I trust liueth well content with such a poore Apostles life as God gaue hys sonne Christ and hys faythfull ministers in thys world which is not sure of so many mites as ye be yearely of poundes although I am sure that for hys learning and iudgement in Scripture he were more worthy to bee promoted then all the Bishops in England I receaued a letter from hym which was written since Christmas wherein among other matters he writeth thus I call God to recorde agaynst the day we shall appeare before our Lorde Iesus to geue a reckoning of our doings that I neuer altered one sillable of Gods worde agaynst my conscience nor would doe thys day if all that is in earth whether it be honour pleasure or riches might be geuen me Moreouer I take God to recorde to my conscience that I desire of God to my selfe in thys world no more then that without which I can not kéepe hys lawes c. Iudge Christē reader whether these words be not spoken of a faythfull clere innocent hart And as for hys behauiour is such that I am sure no man cā reproue hym of any sinne howbeit no mā is innocent before God which beholdeth the hart Finally Zwinglius was a man of such learning and grauitie beside eloquence that I thinke no man in Christendome might haue compared with hym notwithstanding he was slaine in battell in defending hys Citie and common wealth agaynst the assaulte of wicked enemies whiche cause was most righteous And if hys mastership meane that that was the vengeaunce of God and declared hym to be an euill person because he was slaine I may say nay and shew euident examples of the contrary for sometyme God geueth the victorye agaynst them that haue most righteous cause as it is euident in the booke of Iudges where all the children of Israell were gathered together to punishe y e shamefull sodomitrie of the Tribe of Beniamin which
Austen sayd before the Apostle sayth not we signifie burning but sayth we are buried And likewise here Christ sayd not this signifieth my body but this is my body calling the sacrament signe token and memoriall of so great a thing euen with y e name of the very thing it selfe thus doth S. Ambrose choke our sophisters Neuerthelesse I will alleage one place more out of S. Ambrose where he saith Dicit sacerdos fac nobis inquit hanc oblationeÌ„ scriptaÌ„ rationabileÌ„ quod est figura corporis Domini nostri Iesu Christi That is y e Priest sayth make vs this oblation acceptable c. For it is a figure of the body of our Lord Iesu Christ Here he cauleth it plainly a figure of Christes body which thing you can not auoyde Therfore geue prayse vnto God let his truth sprede which is so plainely testified by these holy fathers Now let vs see what S. Hierome sayth S. Hierome writyng vpon Ecclesiaste sayth on thys maner Caro Domini verus cibus est sanguis eius verus potus est hoc solum habemus in praesenti saeculo bonuÌ„ si vescamur carne eius cruoreque potemur non solum in mysterio sed â—tiam in scripturarum lectione verus enim cibus potus qui ex verbo dei sumitur scientia scripturarum est That is to say The flesh of the Lord is very meate hys bloud is very drinke This is onely the pleasure or profite that we haue in thys worlde that we may eate hys fleshe and drinke hys bloud not onely in a mysterye but also in the readyng of Scriptures For the very meate and drink which is taken out of Gods worde is the knowledge of Scriptures Here may ye sée Saint Hieromes minde in few wordes For first he sayth that we eate hys fleshe and drinke hys bloud in a mysterye which is the sacrament of hys remembraunce and memoriall of hys passion And after he addeth that we eate hys flesh and drinke hys bloud in the reading and knowledge of Scriptures and calleth that very meate and very drinke And yet I am sure ye are not so grosse as to thinke that the letters which you read are turned into naturall fleshe and bloud And likewise it is not necessary that the bread shoulde be turned into hys body no more then y e letters in scripture are turned into hys fleshe And neuerthelesse through â—ayth we may as well eate hys body in receauing of the sacrament as eate hys fleshe in reading of the letters of the Scripture Besides that S. Hierome calleth the vnderstanding of the Scripture very meate and very drinke which you must néedes vnderstand in a mystery and spirituall sense for it is neither materiall meate nor drinke that is receaued with the mouth and téeth but it is spirituall meate and drinke and is so called for a similitude propertie because that as meate and drink comfort the body and outward man so doth the readyng and knowledge of Scripture comfort the soule and inward man And likewise it is of Christes body which is called very meate and very drinke which you must néedes vnderstand in a mysterye or spirituall sense as S. Hierome called it for hys body is no materiall meate nor drinke that is receaued with the mouth or téeth but it is spirituall meate and drinke and so called for a similitude and propertie because that as meate and drinke comforteth the body so doth the fayth in hys body breaking and bloudsheding refreshe the soule vnto lyfe euerlastyng We vse it customably in our dayly speach to say when a childe setteth all hys mynde and delight on sport playe It is meate and drinke to thys childe to playe And also we say by a maÌ„ that loueth well hawking and hunting it is meate and drinke to this man to hawke hunt Where no man doubteth but it is a figuratiue speach And therefore I wonder that they are so blinde in thys one poynt of Christes body and can not also take the wordes figuratiuely as these olde Doctors dyd Agayne S. Hierome sayth Postq mysticum pascha fuerat impletum agni carnes cum Apostolis comederat assumit panem qui comfortat cor hominis ad verum paschae transgreditur sacramentum vt quomodo in praefiguratione eius Melchisedech summi Dei sacerdos vinum panem offerens fecerat ipse quoquè viritatem corporis sanguinis repraesentaret That is to say After the mystical Easter Lambe fulfilled and that Christ had eaten the Lambes fleshe with the Apostles he tooke bread which comforteth the hart of man and passeth to the true sacrament of the Easter LaÌ„be that as Melchisedech brought forth bread and wyne figuryng hym so might he likewyse represent the truth of hys body and bloud Here doth S. Hierome speake after the maner that Tertullian dyd before that Christ with bread and wyne dyd represent the truth of hys body For except he had had a true body he coulde not leaue a figure of it nor represent it vnto vs. For a vayne thyng or phaÌ„tasie can haue no figure nor can not be represented as by example how should a man make a figure of hys dreame or represent it vnto our memorye But Christ hath left vs a figure and representation of hys bodye in bread and wyne therefore it followeth that he had a true bodye And that this was S. Hieromes mynde it doth manifestly appeare by y e words of Beda which doth more copiously set out thys saying of Hierome For he writeth on thys maner Finitis paschae veteris solennijs quae in commemorationem antique de Aegypto liberationis agebantur transit ad nouum quod in suae redemptionis memoriam Ecclesia frequentare desiderat vt videlicet pro carne agni vel sanguine suae carnis sanguinisque sacramentum in panis ac vini figura substituens ipsum se esse monstraret cui inrauit Dominus non poenitebit eum Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech Frangit auteÌ„ipse panem quem porrigit vt ostendat corporis sui fractionem noÌ„ sine sua sponte futuram c. Et paulò post Similiter calicem postquam coenauit dedit eis Quia ergo panis carnem confirmat vinum vero sanguinem operatur in carne hic ad corpus Christi mystice illud refertur ad sanguinem That is to say After the solemnitie of the olde Easter Lambe was finished which was obserued in the remembraunce of the olde deliueraunce out of Egypt he goeth vnto the new which the Church gladly obserueth in the remembraunce of hys redemption that he in the stead of the fleshe and bloud of the Lambe might institute and ordayne the Sacrament of hys fleshe and bloud in the figure of bread and wyne and so declare hym selfe to be the same vnto whom the Lord sware and will not repent thou art a perpetuall Priest after
of the bread by eatyng of it if as I say ye remember this thyng for which intent onely the Priest speaketh those wordes then if the Priest leaue out those wordes or part therof he can not hurt you For you haue all ready the effect and final purpose for y e which he should speake them And agayne if he should wholy alter them yet he caÌ„ not deceiue you For then ye be sure that he is a lyer and though you sée the Priest bryng you the wyne consecrated yet neuer sticke at that For as surely shall it certifie your conscience and outward senses though he consecrate it not so thou consecrate it thy selfe that is to say so thou know what is ment therby and geue hym thankes as though hee made a thousand blessynges ouer it And so I say that it is euer coÌ„secrated in hys hart that beleueth though the Priest consecrate it not And contrarywise if they consecrate it neuer so much and thy consecration be not bye it helpeth thée not a rishe For except thou know what is meant therby and beleue geuyng thankes for hys body breakyng bloudshedyng it can not profite thée Now where you say that if we see the thyng disordered by the Priest and Christes institution broken and wyttingly receiue it we make our selues partakers of the cryme I aunswer that if the reformation thereof laye in our handes then sayd you truth but sith it is written to priuate persons which may not reforme this matter and that the reformation therof resteth onely in y e hand of your Prince and Parlament for y e erroure consisteth not in the misordering of the matter by one Priest only but rather of the doctrine of them all sauing such as God hath lightened to these priuate persons I say y â— your doctrine should soner be the occasion of an insurrection which we labour to eshew then any quieting of them by Christes doctrine And therefore sith there is an other waye to wood sauing all vpright we will auoyde that perylous path But when ye sée Christes institution broken and the one kinde left out vnto the laye people why are ye pertaker thereof How beit as for his beleife that taketh it no better but for bare bread wine it maketh him litell matter consecrated or not sauing that the better it is consecrated the more it is euer noyous to him that receiueth it hauing his conscience combred with such an execrable heresie by which well appeareth that he putteth no difference betwene the body of our Lord in the blessed sacrament and the comon bread that he eateth at his dinner But rather he estemeth it lesse for the one yet I thinke or he begyn if he lack a priest he will blesse it him selfe the other hee careth not as he sayth whether it be blessed or no. What I reacon it more theÌ„ bread and wine I will shew you here after in declaring the minde of S. Paule vppon this sacrament that in the conclusion of this boke And in the meane season I will say no more but that he belyeth me And as for their blessinges consecracion profit not me except I consecrate it my selfe with fayth in Christes bloud with geuing him prayse thankes for his inestimable goodnes which when I was his enemy recoÌ„ciled me vnto his father by his own death This consecration must I set by if I will haue any profit of his death which y e sacrament representeth vnto me And if I my selfe do thus consecrate it then shal I be sure of y e fruite of his death And I say agayne that as y e Priestes doe now vse to consecrate it it helpeth not the poore comens of a rishe For their consecracion should stand in preaching vnto them the death of Christ which hath deliuered theÌ„ out of the Egipt of sinne from y e fiery fornace of Pharao the deuill And as for their wagging of their fingers ouer it and saying vj. or vij wordes in latten helpeth them nothing at all for how can they beleue by y e meanes of his wordes when they know not what he sayth And as touching the common bread that I eate at my dynner whether I haue a Priest or not I blesse it with my hart and not with my fingers and hartly geue God thankes for it For if I haue an hundreth Priestes to blesse it yet am not I excused therby For except I blesse it my selfe it profiteth me no more then if it were vnblessed And if I blesse it my â—elfe then I care not what the Priest prate For as long as I vnderstand him not it profiteth me nothing but in good fayth I wene the bishops and their proctour wote not what a blessing meaneth Therefore deare bretheren hearken to me To blesse God is to geue him prayse and thankes for his benefites To blesse a king or a prince is to thanke him for his kindnes and to pray to God for him that he may long raigne to the laude of God wealth of his comens To blesse a mans neighbour is to pray for him and to do him good To blesse my breade or meate is to geue God thankes for it To blesse my selfe is to geue God thankes for his benefites that I haue receiued of him to pray God that of his infinite goodnes he will increase those giftes that he hath geuen me finishe his worke which he hath begone in me vnto his laud and prayse and as touching this fleshe to fulfill his will in it and not to spare it but scurge cut and burne it onely that it may be to his honour glory This is the forme of blessing and not to wag two fingers ouer them But alacke of this blessing our Byshops be ignorant But as for those that are good and faythfull folke and haue any grace or any sparcle of reason in their heades will I verely thinke neuer to be so farre ouerseene as in this article the truth wherof God hath him selfe testified by as many open miracles as euer he testified any one to beleue thys younge maÌ„ vpoÌ„ his barren reasons against the fayth and reason both of all old holy writers and all good Christen people this xv C. yeares As for the miracles I maruell not at them neither may they make me the sooner to beleue it for Christ told vs before that such delusions shoulde come y â— if it were possible y â— very elect should be deceaued by them And S. Paule exhorteth vs to beware of such signes and wonders And therefore I do as Moses teacheth me when I heare of such a wonder then straight I looke on the doctrine that is annexed with it If it teach me to referre all the honor to God and not to creatures and teach me noghyng but that will stand with Gods worde then will I say that it is of God But if it teach me
sonne whiche was shed for our sinnes So that in this place and felowshyp may no mā eate nor drinke with vs but he that is of our fayth and knowledgeth the same God that we doe As by example if a mā were well beloued among hys neyghbours albeit he haue some enemyes and were long absent from hys frendes in a straunge countrey when he were come home his neighbours that loued hym would greatly reioyse and peraduenture would bye a Capon or an other péece of meate to geue hym his wellcom home and get them to some honest mans house or to a Tauerne and make good cheare together to testifie openly that he is welcome home that they all which are at y t banket reioyse of his cōming home Now I say that this banket is more then an other meale for at this banket hys enemies may be loth to come because they can not reioyse at his comming home and therfore can not make good chere among thē testifiing that he is welcome home but rather abhorreth the meate and drinke y t is there eaten because their hart doth not fauour the person for whose sake it is prepared Notwithstanding if a capons legge were reserued for one of his enemies and afterward geuen him when the banket were done he might lawfully eate it For then it were but bare meate such as he eateth at home And likewise y e enemies of Christ which beléeue not that they haue remission of sinnes through his bloudsheding can not reioyce of his body breaking And therfore can make good chere among thē but if any be reserued after the maundy he may lawfully eate it for is but bread And his louers that are there presēt do rather come thether to geue him his welcome home then for the meate and they more eate his welcome home then the meate But if anye of his enemies fortune to be there they eate onely the meat and not his welcome home For they reioyce not at his comming home Likewise the faythfull that are there present do rather come thether to reioyce in y e faith of his body breaking thē in breaking or eating of the bread or meate But if any of the vnfaythfull fortune to be there they eate onely the bread and not his body breaking For they reioyce not at his bodie breaking Here peraduenture some will suppose that I were cōtrary to my self For before I sayd y t it was more then meate y t was eaten at y e gentiles feast more then meate y t was eaten at my neighbors welcome home more thē bread that is eaten at the receiuyng of the sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ And now I say that if a mās enemye be there he eateth onely the meate and not y e welcome home And lykewise the vnfaythfull eateth onely breade and not the body and bloud of Christ How may these wordes stand together I aunswere that they eate but ouely bread or meate y t profiteth them but indeede they eate more to their hinderaunce euen their owne damnation For they that did eate in y t fellowship of y t gentiles did but onlye eate the meate to there profite but in eating theyr meate their facte dyd openly testyfye that they honoured y t Idole for their God although their hart were otherwise wherein they committed idolatry And besides that they wounded the cōsciences of their weake brethren and so sinned against God Besides that he that enuyeth hys neighbour and commeth to that banket eateth but onely y e meate that profiteth hym notwithstandyng in hys owne hart he eateth the rancor malice of his mynde to his great greuaūce when he séeth them so reioyse And of hys owne companions which are also these mans enemyes he doth purchase hym selfe hatred because with his fact hee testifieth that hee loueth him although his hart be otherwise and of God shal be condemned For hee that hateth his brother is a murtherer Furthermore he that is vnfaithfull and commeth to the maūdy eateth but onely y t bread that profiteth hym notwithstādyng he eateth beside that his owne damnation because he beleueth not that the body of our Sauiour whiche the Sacrament representeth is brokē for hys sinnes and his bloud shed to washe them away This I am compelled to doe to stop the chateryng mouthes of Sophisters albeit to them that be sober it bad been inough to haue sayd they eate onely bread not the body broken c. For they right well vnderstand it by the contrary Antithesie know that I meant not by that onely that he should eate the bread nothyng els but onely bread but that I meant by this worde onely that hee should eate the bread without the body And so lykewise in other exāples Thus haue we sufficiently declared Paules mynde in the. 10. Chapter In the xj chapter Paule maketh much mencion of the maundye dyscribeth it to y t vttermost Frst he saith when ye come together in one place a man can not eate the Lords supper For euery man beginnyth afore to eate his owne supper and one is hungry and an other is dronken Haue ye not houses to eate and drinke in or els despise ye the congregation of God and shame them that haue not what shall I saye vnto you shall I prayse you In this I prayse you not Paule did instruct according to Christes mynde y t the Corinthians should come togither to eate the Lordes supper Whiche lyeth not so much in the carnall eatyng as in the spiritual and is greatly desired to be eaten not by the hunger of the body but by the hūger of the faithfull hart which is gredy to publishe the prayse of the Lord and geue hym harty thankes moue other to the same that of many praise might be geuen vnto our most mercyful father for the loue which he shewed vs in the bloud of his owne most deare sonne Christ Iesu Wherewith we are washed from our sinnes and surely sealed vnto euerlastyng lyfe With such hūger dyd Christ eate the Paschall lambe saying to hys Disciples I haue in wardly desired to eate this Easter lāde with you before that I suffer Christes inward desire was not to fill hys belly with his disciples but hee had a spirituall hūger both to prayse his father with them for theyr bodely deliueraūce out of the land of Egypt and specially to alter the Pasichall lambe and memory of the carnall deliueraunce into the maundy of myrth and thākesgeuyng for our spirituall deliueraunce out of the bondage of sinne In so much that when Christ knewe that it was his fathers will and pleasure that he should suffer for our sinnes wherin his honor glory and prayse should be published then was it a pleasure vnto hym to declare vnto his Disciples that great benefite vnto his fathers prayse and glory so did institute that we should come together and breake the bread in the
remēbraunce of his body breakyng and bloud shedyng and that we shuld eate it together reioysing with ech other declaryng hys benefites Now were the Corinthians fallen from this hunger and came not together to the intent that Gods prayse should bee published by them in the middest of the congregatiō but came to féede their flesh and to make carnal cheare In so much that y t rich would haue meate and drinke inough and take such aboundaunce y t they would be dronke and so made it their owne per not the Lordes as Paule saith and did eate onely the bread meate and not the body breaking as I haue before said the poore which had not that is to say that had no meate to eate were ashamed and hungry and so could not reioyse and prayse the Lord by the reason that the delicate fare of the riche was an occasion for the poore to lament their pouertie and thus the rich dyd neither prayse God them selues nor suffered the poore to doe it but were an occasion to hynder them They should haue brought theyr meate and drinke and haue deuided it with their poore brethren that they might haue been mery together and so to haue geuen them occasion to be mery and reioyse in the Lorde with thankes geuyng But they had neither lust to prayse God nor to comfort their neighbour Their fayth was féeble and their charitie cold and had no regard but to fill their body and féede their flesh And so despised y t poore cōgregation of God whom they should haue honoured for y t spirite that was in them fauour that God had shewed indifferently vnto them in y ◠bloud of hys sonne Christ When Paule perceiued that they were thus fleshly mynded and had no mynde vnto that spirituall maundy which chiefly shuld ther bee aduertised hée reproueth thē sore rehearsing y t wordes of Christ That which I gaue vnto you I receiued of the Lord. For the Lord Iesus the same night in the which hee was betrayed tooke bread and thanked and brake it and said take ye and eate ye this is my bodye which is broken for you this do ye in the remembraunce of me After the same maner hee tooke the cup when supper was done saying this cuppe is the new Testament in my bloud this doe ye as ofte as ye drinke it in the remembraunce of me For as oft as ye shall eate this bread drinke of this cup ye shall shew the Lordes death til he come As though hée should say ye Corinthians are much to blame whiche at this Supper séeke the foode of your flesh For it was institute of Christ not for the intent to norishe the belly but to strēghten the hart and soule in God And by this you may know that Christ so meant For he calleth it hys body which is geuen for you so that the name it selfe might testifie vnto you that in this supper you should more eate his body whiche is geuen for you by digestyng that into the bowels of your soule then the bread which by the breakyng and the distributyng of it doth represent his body breakyng and the distributyng therof vnto all that are faythful And that bée so meaneth is euident by the wordes folowyng which say this do in the remembrance of mee and likewyse of the cuppe And finally concludyng of both Paule sayth as often as ye shall eate this bread drinke of this cuppe in this place and felowshyp ye shall shew y t Lordes death vntill hée come praysing the Lord for the death of his sonne and exhortyng other to doe the same reioysing in hym with infinite thākes And therfore ye are to blame whiche séeke onely to féede the belly with that thyng which was onely institute to féede the soule And theruppon it foloweth Wherfore who soeuer doth eate of this bread and drinke of this cup vnworthely is gilty of the body and bloud of the Lorde He eateth this bread vnworthely which regardeth not the purpose for the which Christ dydinstitute it which cōmeth not to it with spirituall hūger to eate through fayth his very body which the bread representeth by the breaking and disstributing of it which commeth not with a mery hart geuing God harty thankes for their deliueraunce from sinne Which doe not much more eate in their hart y t death of his body then they doe the bread with their mouth Now sith the Corinthyans did onlye séeke their belly and flesh and forgat Gods honour and prayse for which it was instituted y ◠thākes should be geuen by the remembrance of his body breaking for vs they eate it to Gods dishonour to their neighboures hinderaunce to their owne condemnation so for lacke of fayth were giltye of Christes body which by fayth they should there chiefely haue eaten to their soules health And therefore it followeth †Let a man therfore examyne him selfe and so let him eate of the bread and drinke of the cuppe THis prouing or examinyng of a mans selfe is first to thinke with him selfe with what lust and desire he cōmeth vnto the maundy will eate that bread whether he be sure that he is the child of God and in the faith of Christ And whether his cōscience do beare him witnesse that Christes body was broken for him And whether the lust y t he hath to prayse God and thanke hym with a faythfull hart in the middes of the bretheren do driue hym thether warde Or els whether he do it for y t meates sake or to kéepe the custome for then were it better that he were away For he that eateth or drinketh vnworthely eateth and drinketh his owne damnation becaufe he maketh no differēce of the Lordes body That is as it is sayd before he that regardeth not the purpose for which it was instituted putteth no difference betwene his eating and other eating for other eating doth onely serue the bellye but this eating was instituted and ordayned to serue the soule and inward man And therfore he that abuseth it to the flesh eateth and drinketh his owne damnation And he commeth vnworthelye to the maundye where the sacrament of Christes body is eaten ye where the body of the Lord is eaten not carnally with the téeth and bellye but spiritually with the hart and faith Vpon this followeth the text that M. More allegeth and wresteth for his purpose For this cause many are weake sicke among you and many sléepe yf we had truely Iudged our selues we should not haue béene Indged when we are Iudged of the Lorde we are chastened because we should not bée damned wich the world Wherfore my bretheren whē ye come togither to eate tary one for an other Yf a man hunger let him eate at home that ye come not togither vnto condemnation For this cause that is for lacke of good examinyng of our selues as is before touched many are weake and sicke in
the olde doctoures which séeme contrary to our sentēce And therefore marke it well Thus haue you my mynde farther vppon the Sacrament of the bodye and bloud of Christ Wherein if you recken that I haue béene too long in repeating one thing so often I shall pray you of pardon But surely mée thought I coulde not bée shorter For the worlde is such now a dayes that some woulde heare and can not and some doe heare and will not And therfore I am compelled so oftē to repeate that thing which a wise man woulde vnderstand with halfe the wordes ¶ Praye Christen reader that the worde of God may encrease and that God may bee glorified thorough my bondes Amen The Articles wherfore Iohn Frith dyed whiche hee wrote in Newgate the. 23. day of Iune the yeare of our Lord. 1533. I Doubt not deare brethren but that it doth some deale vexe you to sée the one part haue all the wordes and fréely to speake what they lifte and the other to bée put to silence and not to bée heard indifferently But referre your matters to God whiche shortly shall iudge after an other fashiō But in the meane reason I shall rehearse vnto you the articles for which I am condemned ¶ They examined me but of two articles which are these FIrste whether I thought there were no Purgatory to purge the soule after this present lyfe And I sayd that I thought there was none For man is made but of two partes the body and the soule And the body is purged by y t crosse of Christ which hée layeth vpon euery child that hée receaueth as affliction worldly oppression persecution imprisonment c. and death finisheth sinne And y t soule is purged by the word of God which we receaue thorough fayth vnto the health saluatiō both of body soule Now and if I did know any thyrd part wherof we are made I would also gladly graunt the thyrd Purgatory but seyng I know none such I must deny the Popes Purgatory Neuertheles I count neither part a necessary article of our faith necessarely to bée beléeued vnder payne of damnation whether there bée such a purgatory or not The second article was this whether that I thought that the Sacrament of the aulter was the body of Christ And I sayd yea y t I thought that it was both Christes body and also our bodye as S. Paule sayth 1. Cor. 10. chapter In that it is made one bread of many graynes it is our body signifying that we though we bée many are yet one body and likewise of the wyne in that it is made one wyne of many grapes And agayne in that it is broken it is Christes body signifying that his body should bée broken that is to say suffer death to redeme vs from our iniquities In that it was distributed it was Christes body signifying that as verely as that Sacrament is distributed vnto vs so verely is Christes body the frute of his passiō distributed vnto all faithfull men In that it is receaued it is Christes body signifying that as verely as outward man receaueth the Sacrament with his téeth and mouth so verely doth the inward man through fayth receaue Christes body frute of his passion and is as sure of it as of the bread that hée eateth Well sayd they do you not thinke that his very naturall body both flesh and bloud is really contained vnder the Sacramēt and there actually present beside all similitudes No said I I do not so thinke Notwithstandyng I would not that any should counte that I make my saying whiche is the negatiue any article of the fayth For euen as I saye that you ought not to make any necessary article of y t fayth of your part which is y t affirmatiue So I say agayne that we make none necessarye article of the fayth of our parte but leaue it indifferent for all men to iudge therein as God shall open his hart and no side to condemne or despise the other but to nourish in all thynges brotherly loue to beare others insirmities The text of S. Augustine which they there alleged agaynst mee was this that in y t Sacramēt Christ was borne in his owne handes Whereunto I sayd y t S. Augustine doth full well expoūd him selfe For in an other place hēe sayeth Ferebatur tanq in manibus suis That is hee was horne after a certeine maner in his owne handes And by that hée sayth after a certeine maner ye may soone perceaue what hée meaneth Howbeit if S. Augustin had not thus expounded himselfe yet hée sayth ad Bonifacium that y t Sacrament of a thyng hath a similitude or propertie of the thyng whiche it signifieth And for that cause it hath many tymes y t name of y t very thyng which it signifieth And so hée sayth y t he bare himself because hée bare y t Sacramēt of his body bloud which did so earnestly expresse him selfe that nothyng might more doe it If you read y e place of S. Augustine ad Bonifacium which I alleage in my last booke ye shall soone sée them aunswered An other place they alleaged out of Chrisostome which at the first blush séemeth to make well for them But if it bée well wayed it maketh much lesse for them then they wéene The wordes are these Doest thou see bread and wine doe they depart from thee into the draught as other meates doe God forbid for as in waxe when it commeth to the fier nothing of the sub staunce remayneth nor aboūdeth so lykewise thinke that the mysteries are cōsumed by the substaunce of the body These wordes I expounded by the wordes of the same Doctour S. Chrisostome whiche in an other Homilie sayth on this maner The inwarde eyes as soone as they see the bread they flye ouer all creatures and thinke not of the bread that is baken of the baker but of the bread of euerlastyng life whiche is signified by the mysticall bread Now conferre these places togither and you shall perceaue that the last expoūdeth the first clearely First hée sayth wilt thou sée bread wyne I aunswere by the second nay For the inward eyes as soone as they sée y e bread thinke not of it but of y t thyng it self y t is signified therby And so hée séeth it séeth it not He séeth it with his outward and carnall eyen but his inward eyen séeth it not That is to say regarde not the bread or thinke not on it Euen as we commonly say when we play a game negligētly by my truth I sée not what I doe meanyng that our myndes is not vppon that thing which we sée with our outward eyen And lykewise we may aūswere the next part where he sayth Doe they depart from thée into the draught as other meates doe Nay forsooth sayd I for other meates doe onely come to nourish y t body to depart into the
draught But this meate y t I here receaue is spirituall meate receaued with fayth norisheth vs euerlastyngly both body soule neuer entreth into the draught And euē as before the outwarde eyen doe sée the bread yet the outward eyen doe not regarde that or thinke vpō it So likewise the outward man digesteth the bread casteth it into the draught And yet the inward man doth not regarde that nor thinke vppon it But thinketh on the thyng it selfe that is signified by that bread And therfore sayd Chrisostome euen a litle before the wordes whiche they here alleaged lift vp your minde hartes sayd hée whereby hée monisheth vs to looke vppon and consider those heauenly thinges which are represented and signified by the bread and wyne not to marke the bread and wyne in it selfe Here they will say vnto me that it is not Chrisostomes mynde for by his example hée playnly shewith that there remaneth no bread nor wyne that I deny For the example in this place proueth no more but y t ye shall not think on y t bread wine no more then if they were not there but onely on that thyng whiche is signified by them And that ye may euidently perceiue by the wordes folowyng where hée saith thinke that the misteries are cōsumed by the substance of the body Nowe whether Chrisostome thought that there remained bread or no both wayes shall our purpose bée proued First if hée thought there remained still bread and wyne then we haue our purpose Now if he thought that the bread wyne remayned not but were chaūged then are the bread and wyne neither mysteries nor Sacramentes of the body and bloud of Christ For that that is not can neither bée mystery nor Sacrament Finally if hée speake of y e outward appearaunce of bread then we know that that remaineth still is not consumed by the substaunce of the body And therfore hée must néedes bée vnderstanded as I take him I thinke many men wonder how I can dye in this article seyng that it is no necessary article of our fayth for I graunt that neyther parte is an article necessary to bée beléeued vnder payne of damnation but leaue it as a thyng indifferent to thynke therein as God shall instill in euery mans mynde and that neyther parte condemne other for this matter but receiue eche other in brotherly loue reseruing eche others infirmitie to god The cause of my death is thys because I can not in conscience abiure and sweare that our Prelates opinion of the sacrament that is that the substaunce of bread and wine is verely chaunged into the fleshe and bloud of our sauiour Iesus Christ is an vndoubted article of the fayth necessary to bée beléeued vnder payne of damnation Now though this opinion were indéede true which thing they can neither proue true by scripture nor doctours yet coulde I not in conscience graunt that it shoulde bée an article of the fayth necessary to bée beléeued c. For there are many verities which yet may bée no such articles of our fayth It is true that I lay in yrons when I wrote this howbeit I would not haue you to receaue thys truth for an article of our fayth For you may thinke the contrary without all ieopardy of damnation ¶ The cause why I can not beleeue their opinion of transmutation is this 1 FIrst because I thinke verely that it is false and can neither hée proued by scripture nor faythfull doctours if they bée well pondered 2 The second cause is thys because I will not bynde the congregation of Christ by mine example to admitte any necessarye Article beside oure Creede and specially none such as can not bée prooued true by Scripture And I say that the Church as they caule it can not compell vs to receaue any such articles to bée of necessitie vnder payne of damnation 3 The thirde cause is because I dare not bée so presumptuous in entering into Gods iudgement as to make the prelates in this pointe a necessary article of our fayth For then I should damnably condemne all the Germanes Almaines with infinite moe which in déede doe not beléeue nor thinke that the substaūce of bread and wine is chaunged into the substaūce of Christes naturall body And surely I can not bée so foolishe hardy as to condemne such an infinite number for our prelates pleasures Thus all the Germaynes and Almaynes both of Luthers side and also of Oecolampadius doe wholy approue my matter And surely I thinke there is no man that hath a pure conscience but hée will thinke that I dye righteously For that this transubstantiation should bée a necessary article of the faith I thinke no man can say it with a good conscience although it were true in déede By me Iohn Frith An exact and diligent Table wherby you may readely turne to any speciall matter that is contained in all Iohn Frithes bookes 1572. A. ABraham 20 Abrahames bosome what it signified 55 Abraham by faith dyd eate Christes bodye and drinke Christes bloud 109 Ambrose opinion of Purgatory 52 Antithesis betweene Christ and the Pope 97 Argumentes to proue that Christes naturall body is not in the Sacrament 142 Articles of our faith are to bee beleeued vpon payne of damnation 111 Articles of our fayth are as many as are necessary for our saluation 145 Augustine beyng 400. yeares after Christ doubted of Purgatory 32 Augustines opinion of purgatory 52 B. BAptisme defined what it is 92 Baptisme is the founteine of our new byrth 94 Bishopricke in the primatiue church was a charge and not a Lordshyp 116 Blasphemie to saye that Christes bloud is not the full remission of our sinnes 11 Blessyng what it is 154 Bookes of the Machabees are not Canonicall 37 Bookes agaynst Rastall 60 Boasting that is modest is commendable 64 Body of Christe eaten by our fathers and his bloud dronke 109 Body of Christ is no more in the Sacrament thē a mans face in the glasse 146 Brethren is an auncient name in the holy Scripture 114 Bread and wyne remayne in the Sacrament 117 Bread why it is called our body 160 C. CAuse of our blyndnes and grosse errours 3 Causes why the Sacramentes were first instituted 112 Ceremonies of some sortes are guydes vnto the knowledge of God 95 Christ onely hath satisfied for our sinnes 14. 15 Christes merites putteth out the fier of Purgatory 14. 17. 18 Christ is our Aduocate 17 Christes sacrifice onely taketh away sinne 17. 38 Christ onely is our head 43 Christes death hath ouercōmed our death 55 Christ was meeke and gentle 57 Christ onely is the meane to put away our sinnes 73 Christes bloud is the strength of our Baptisme 94 Christ and the Pope compared togither 97. 98. 99. 100. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106 Christ is not to bee eatē carnally but spiritually 118. 119 Christes wordes are spirituall and not carnall 124 Christe gaue
could vsed all maner of cruelnes to haue destroyed mée Neuertheles at y e last hée deliuered mée y â— roole for to reade TheÌ„ was all y e people y â— stoode there called to heare me For in y e other iij. dayes was there no man suffered to heare one worde that I spake So after their commaundement that was geuen mée I red it adding nothing to it nor saying one word that might make for myne excuse supposing that I should haue founde the Byshoppes the better After this I was commaunded to subscribe to it to make a crosse on it Then was I commaunded to goe knéele downe before the Byshop of Bathe and to require absolution of hym but hée woulde not assoyle mée except I woulde first sweare that I woulde fulfill the penaunce that hée shoulde enioyne to mée So did I sweare not yet suspectinge but theâ—e men had had some cromme of charitie within them But when I had sworne then enioyned hée mée that I should returne that nyght agayne to pryson And the nexte day which was Fastingam Sonday I should doe open penaunce at Paules And that the worlde shoulde thynke that I was a marueylous haynous heretyke the Cardinall came the next day with all y e pompe and pride that hée could make to Paules church and all to bring mée poore soule out of consayte And moreouer were there commaunded to come all y e byshops that were at London and all the abbots dwelling in London that dyd weare miters in so much that the prior of S. Mary spittell and an other moncke which I thinke was of Tower hill were there also in their myters And to set the matter more forth that the world should perfectly know perceiue that the spirituall fathers had determined my matter substancially The byshop of Rochester must preach there the same day and all his sermon was agaynst Lutherians as though they had coÌ„uicted me for one The which of truth and afore God was as farre from those thinges as any man could bée sauing that I was no tyraÌ„t nor no persecutour of Gods worde And all this gorgyous fasing with myters and crostaues abbotts and priors were done but to blinde the people and to outface mée God amend all thinges that is amysse I had béene well content to haue suffered all these thinges so I might haue come to a charitable end But I must returne agayne after this to prison there remayne tyll my Lord Cardinals farther pleasure The which pleasure I did abide fyrst and last â–ª 2. yeares and thrée quarters yet could neuer bée at any poynt with theÌ„ For I sent vnto y â— byshop of London that was then certayne worshipfull men of the Cyty of LoÌ„don whose names bée these Mayster Lambert which hath béene Maior M. Raynold which hath béene shreue M. Palmer M. Petyt M. Iones and M. Pernell And desyred these men in the way of charitie to goe to the Byshop of London and to desire him to bée good and gracious vnto mée And if I had offended I would bée glad to make amends asmuch as hée should reasonably require of mée Desiring hym to shew theÌ„ what hée would of his charitie require me to doe they for to bée bound vnto hym y e I would kéepe it This they dyd But what aunswer y e they had of hym they bée men aliue for the most part they can tell And amongst all other maister Petit sayd vnto the byshop Alas my Lorde it is a petuous case If a man come in the daunger of your lawe there is no remedy to helpe hym out Yes saydâ— the byshop What is that sayd maister Petyt This is a yong man hath good frendes which would bée right lothe to haue him cast away wherefore if there bée any remedy deuise you it and we wil bée bound for him At this the byshop was astonyed and sayde at the last that hée would speake to my Lorde Cardinal for mée Then these meÌ„ offered him to goe with him and to bée bounde for mée Hée sayde it should not néede But neuertheles hée spake so vnto them or they departed that wheÌ„ they came home there was not one of them that durst geue mée so much bread meat as hée durst geue his dog nor yet speake one word to mée Immediatelye after this the byshop founde y e meanes that I was sent to northaÌ„pton there to remayne as in a perpetuall prison Thus most gracious prince haue they handled me your poore Oratour I beseche your highnes to bée good and gracious vnto mée iudge if this bée charitable dealyng thus to coÌ„demne mée for an heretyke not to shew mee the poynt wherefore But euen with a violent tyrannye to compeil mée to doe confesse what they will or els to bée put to death And if there bée any of them yet y e will come forth and proue any of these articles heresye I will not refuse to suffer any payne that your grace shall iudge me worthy Thus our Lord Iesus Christe preserue your noble grace euermore Amen Onely fayth iustifieth before God NOw if your grace doe not take vppon you to heare the disputation the probation of this article out of the grouÌ„d of the holy Scripture my Lordes the Bishops will condeÌ„ne it afore they read it as their maner is to doe with all thynges that pleaseth them not and which they vnderstand not and then crye they heresy heresie an hereticke an hereticke hée ought not to bée heard for his matters bée condemned by the Church by his holy fathers and by all long customes and by all maner of lawes Vnto whom with your graces fauour I make this auÌ„swere I would know of them if all these things that they haue reckened can ouercome Christ and his holy worde or set the holy ghost to schole And if they can not why should not I then bée heards that doe require it in the name of Christ and also bryng for me his holy worde the holy fathers which haue vnderstand Gods worde as I doe Therfore though they will not heare me yet must they néedes heare them In holy Scripture Christ is nothing els but a Sauiour a redéemer a iustifier a perfect peace maker betwene God and man This testimony dyd y e aungell geue of him in these wordes Hée shall saue his people from theyr sinnes And also S. Paule Christ is made our righteousnes our satisfaction and our redemption Moreouer the Prophet witnesseth the same saying For the wretchednes of my people haue I striken him So that here haue we Christ with his properties Now if we wil truly coÌ„fesse Christ then must we grauÌ„t with our hartes that Christ is all our iustice all our redemption all our wisedome all our holynes all alonely the purchaser of grace alonly y e peace maker betwéene God and man Briefely all goodnes that we haue y e it is of hym by him and for his
more ieoperdye to geue the pure body of Christ Iesus into a foule soule then y t a drop of bloud by negligence should fall on the ground for there falleth but a drop and here is y t whole body in a foular place then the ground is Also that may bée auoyded with good diligence and wisedome of the Priest but that the sacrament shall alwayes bée receiued into a pure conscience there is no dilygence of the priest that can make it How thinke you now now is all the whole sacrament Christes blessed ordinaunce clearely taken away and all for auoyding ieoperdies and perells Thus trifle you with Christes holy word yea and y t in your great and holy counsels Other reasons my Lorde of Rochester bringeth that bée worthy of no solution for hée doth but mocke scorne and trifle with Gods word Hée bringeth y t myracle of y t fiue loues where there is no mentioÌ„ made of wyne therefore lay men must bée houseled in one kinde is not this madnes What meane these men y t neyther feare God nor yet bée ashamed of man what is this to the purpose Christ dyd a myrackle of fyue loues where is no mencion made of wyne what is this to the sacrament If the bread fygnifyed one part of the sacrament what sygnifyed the 2. fyshes they that were there These 2. things must néedes signifye the other part Also lay men did touch this breade Moreouer in an other place Christ geueth all onely wine Therefore the sacrament must bée receiued in the kinde of wine al onely of the lay men Bée not these goodly argumentes yea and that of bishops it were madnes to aunswere to them That by Gods worde it is lawfull for Priestes that hath not the gift of chastitie to marry Wiues I Haue séene and heard in diuerse countryes where I haue béene intolerable persecutioÌ„ agaynst Priestes that were compelled by weakenes of nature to mary wyues for that intent that they might after Gods law and mans law vse an honest coÌ„uersation in this world For the which thyng I say they haue béene sore persecuted some cast out of their countrey some drowned some burned and some beheaded Finally all the cruelnes that could bée excogitated against them men thought it to litle Wherfore I that recken my selfe a debtour and a seruaunt vnto all meÌ„ in all thynges wherein I may profite them and specially in thynges that apperteine to instructioÌ„ of their conscience hath taken vpoÌ„ me in this cause to shew my litle and small learnyng charitably desiryng theÌ„ that bée some thing yet against this thyng that they will let them selues bée taught and instructed by Gods word and not to set themselues obstinately agaynste the verity of Gods blessed word For our Lord can easely beare and suffer an vnwilled ignoraunce but a peruerse malice and a froward resistyng of his veritie can hée not suffer but thereunto is hée a mortall and an extreme enemy Wherefore let men consider that if this article doth stand with Gods word â—ith Christes holy doctrine that if then they resiste and set themselues agaynst it how that they doe resiste God the which no man is able to performe Certaine men there bée that of a very peruerse froward and obstinate mynde doth set them selues agaynst this article other moe And will in no wise admit either reason or learnyng but still remaine in theyr old errour that they haue conceiued in their braynes whiche is neither grounded in Gods holy word nor yet in the holy conuersation or lyuyng of blessed and vertuous meÌ„ Vnto these men will I write nothyng bycause I will not trouble them and bycause I would bée loth to bée torne with dogs téeth or elles to cast pearles béefore swyne An other sorte of meÌ„ there bée that doth not admit this article by the reason that they bée ignoraunt in Scriptures and know not the very grouÌ„de therof but alonely are led by an old custome that they haue béen brought vp in Yet neuerthelesse they are not obstinate enemyes vnto the veritie but would gladly geue place to learnyng and reason And all that they doe is to search with a sober méekenes what y e truth is The which thing they are glad to embrace as soone as it is layde to them Vnto these men is my writyng and my labour spent whom I doe charitably beséeche that they will fauourably and indifferently iudge this my writyng This doe I bynde my selfe to prooue this thing by Gods grace out of Christs holy worde by the sayinges of holy Doctours by the authoritie of autheÌ„ticall stories by the examples practise of holy and vertuous men And if I doe not this I will bée contented not to bée beléeued which thyng if I can performe I thinke all reasonable men will géeue credence to mée Finally and laâ—t of all I will shew those reasons and authorities wherby that the Pope hath bounde hys Priestes to kéepe as hée calleth it pure chastitie And in conclusion after my poore learnyng I will assoyle all those Scriptures and reasons and prooue that in this thyng they caÌ„ haue no place Vnto the performyng of the whiche Iesus of his infinite mercy graunt me of his holy spirite Amen FIrst coÌ„meth blessed Saint Paule whom the Church of God hath alwayes had in reuerence and hée approueth this doctrine of mine saying Let euery man for auoyding of fornication haue his wife and euery woman haue her husband Marke how blessed S. Paule coÌ„maundeth where as any daunger of fornication is that euery man in auyoding of vicious lyuyng should take a wife Here is no man excepted for the text is for euery man and specially for them that can not lyue sole Vnto theÌ„ it is a streight commaundement to marry there is none other remedy ordeined of God to auoyde fornication but mariage Yea and if there were ten other remedies more then mariage yet must mariage bée as lawfull as they to bée vsed yea and a great deale more séeyng that it is specially appoynted of God for a remedy in this case For as for all other remedyes as fastyng watchyng labouryng chastising of a mans body though they bée lawfull laudable and good yet bée they not appropriately and onely appoynted of God to bée remedies agaynst fornication as blessed S. Paule doth here appoynt mariage for to bée Wherefore if it bée lawfull for Priestes for to fast and watch to auoyde fornication it must néedes bée more lawful for theÌ„ to marry wiues if they bée in daunger of fornication For mariage in this case is not alonely commaunded of God but it is appointed of God for an especiall and singular medecine for this disease Marke also the occasion that S. Paul had to write this text to the Corinthians There were certeine men amoÌ„g them that reckened it an holines and a perfectioÌ„ as certeine meÌ„ doth now for Priestes that Christen meÌ„ should lyue sole without wiues as