the flesh so that whole Christ both God man suffered according to the vnity of persō but suffered not according to the propretie of nature that is to say of his godhead According to this I haue set downe Acts. chap. 20. ver 28. 1. Cor. chap. 2. ver 8. are Saint Paules words in the Actes and to the Corinthians to be vnderstanded The councell of Constantinople did decree that the blessed Virgine shoulde bee called the mother of GOD. We doe allowe that decree of the councell and yet we neither doe nor may thinke that the virgine Mary did heare Christies Godhead in hir wombe but the meaning is that he whiche was horne of the blessed virgine was not onely man but for the coniunction of the word to the fleshe God and man 13. The bread and wine in the Lords Supper must not bee reserued for any superstitious vse It was not lawfull to keepe any part of the Paschall lambe Exod. cha 12 verse 10. Exod cap. 16. verse 19.20 It was not lawfull to reserue of the Manna That which was reserued was full of wormes and did stinke Our Sauiour Christ at the institution administration of the holy Supper Mat. chap. 26. verse 26. commaunded his disciples to take and eate not to take and reserue it Cyprian writes that the Sacrament was receiued Decoena Domini but not shut vp and reserued I confesse that the Sacrament in olde time was reserued De lapsis lib. 6. chap. 44. Cyprian writeth that a certaine woman had it in her chiest Eusebius saith out of Dionifius that a priest had it in his chamber where hee deliuered it to Serapions boy to carried to Serapion which was then at the poynt of death But this relerning of the Sacrament was a strange abuse and therefore afterwarde was iustly abolished The reseruing and hanging vp of the Sacrament as the Papistes call it in a Pixe vnder a Canopie hath no light in Gods booke to shewe it by and before the time of Innocentins the fourth it was neyther an article of our fayth nor any lawe of the Church that Christians shoulde worship the breade wine in the Sacrament much lesse giue diuine honour to a wafer cake after that the action of the Sacrament is ended if that the Popish Sacrament of the Altar might be accompted a sacrament 14 Howe Gods chyldren must behaue themselues at and after the receiuing of the holy Supper In the time of the administration of the holy Supper wee must vse our eares and eyes very reuerently our eares in attending to Gods trueth and the holy institution of the Supper our eyes in beholding the holy misteries set vpon the Lordes table When the Sacrament is reached vnto vs wee are weightely to consider that as the bread and wine is broken and powred out in the holy supper for our vse so Christs bodye and blood which was giuen and shed on the crosse for perfiting the precious woorke of our redemption is giuen vnto vs to be the food of our soules and for this inestimable benefite wee must confesse our selues to be greatly and deeply bouns to our mercifull Sauiour by his grace giue vp our selues wholie to his prayse and seruice After that our soules are fedd at the Lordes table and that wee are graft into Christ as into a flourishing vine and ioyned to the faithfull as to goodly branches of this vine wee must liue Christianly not a day or two but al our life time first in beating downe our pride vanitie secondly in doing good to our brethren Lastly in keeping the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peare These graces if we doearnestly pray for to almightie God hee will giue them vnto vs in mercie for his greater glorie our singular comfort through Iesus Christ Amen FINIS Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinttee by Thomas Dawson for George Byshoppe 1582.
substance of our bodies must consist of Arcidentes The popish sorte call vs Sacramentaries that is to say such as doe abolish the force vse of the Sacrament If our doctrine did ouerthrow the Analogie of the Sacrament is theirs doth we might iustly be called Sacramentaries TransubstaÌ„tiatioÌ„ was borne in yâ— coâ—cel of Laterane in the yeere of our Lord 1215. Obiection Christ said at the institution of the holy supper Math. chap. 26. ver 26. This is my body therefore the substance of the bread is changed into the body of Christ Answere This argument hangs together like saÌ„d c. If Christ wheÌ„ he reached bread vnto his Apostles did giue his body really substantially to be eaten of them then had Christ many reall substaÌ„tial bodies at in one the selfe same time place which is a grosse absurditie I confesse that Christes speech this is my body when he had giuen the bread to his Apostles is a very true speech If it be a true speech it must bee true either properly and literally or figuratiuely If it be true properly literally then whatsoeuer may bee saide of Christes body as that it was borne of the blessed virgine suffered dyed rose againe c may be applied to the brend in the Sacramente whatsoeuer may be said of the bread as that it was sowen reaped threshed baked c may bee likewise applied to Christes bodie which no man that feareth God can admit If Christs speech be vnderstanded literally he did commaunde a foule and haynous thing which is sufficient to proue it a figuratiue speech Leb 3. cap. 16 de doct Chri. according to Augustines rule If any doe aske me what I take to be the true meaning of Christes words This is my body My aunswere is that they are notably expounded by S. Paule when he saith the bread which we breake 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. is it not the partaking of the body of Christ Question If Christ be not bodily present in the sacrameÌ„t what do Gods childreÌ„ receiue wheÌ„ they are partakers of the holy supper Answere They receiue the food of life immortality they eate life drink life when the sacrament is reached vnto them they receiue as bread wine for the nourishing of their bodies so the body bloud of the Lord Iesus for the most comfortable nourishing of their soules If any either drowned in Popery or inclined to it shall peruse this which I haue written I referre him for his further instruction to a notable treatise of Christs body and bloud writteÌ„ by Bertram vnto the Emperour Charles the great This Bertrame was both a Priest and a Monke and liued in the yeare of our Lord 840. 11 The wicked doe not eate Christes bodie in the Sacrament Christ cannot be separated from his spirite which spirite of Christ because the wicked haue not they caÌ„not be partakers of Christ Hee that eateth Christ shall liue by Christ Iohn chap. 6. verse 57. Iohn chap. 6. ver 56. Iohn chap. 15 ver 5. the wicked shal not liue by Christ He that eateth my flesh drinketh my bloud abideth in me I in him The wicked doe not abide in Christ because they bring not forth much fruite The meate of the soule is not eaten of theÌ„ which haue not the mouth of the foule Cyprian writes that the wicked doe licke the rocke De coena Domini but that they sucke from thence neyther hony nor oyle because they are quickned neither with any sweetnes of charity nor with any moysture of the holy spirit besides that they neyther iudge themselues nor discerne the sacraments For further proofe of this poynt I referre the learned reader to Cyprians treatise of the holy Supper Question Whosoeuer shall eate this bread drinke the cup of the Lord vnworthely 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 27. shall be guiltie of the bodie and bloud of the Lord. The wicked are guiltie of the bodie bloud of the Lord therefore the wicked doe eate the bodie drinke the bloud of the Lorde Answeare The argument folowes not and the wicked are guilty of the body bloud of the Lorde because they eate drinke vnworthely the bread wine which are sacrameÌ„ts of the body and bloud of the Lorde For the iniury done to the Sacramentall signes reacheth to the thinges which are signified by them If the princes cloth of estate be abused it is a grosse fault and the iniury reacheth to the person of the Prince Obiection The wicked man is guiltie of the Lords body because hee discerneth not the Lords body 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 29. therefore by eating Christes body he is guilty Answere The argument followes not for not to discerne the Lords body is to make no difference betweene the sacrament of Christes body coÌ„mon meate to abuse it which is a grosse sinne being committed against the sacrament reacheth vnto Christes body it selfe 12 Christes bodie is note uery where The Apostle Peter saith that heauen must containe Christ vntil the time that all things be restored Act. chap 3. ver 21. that is to say vntill Christes second comming The Angels say that Christ is taken vp into heauen c. Acts chap. 1. ver 11. If he be taken vp into heauen touching his body which must needs be the meaning of the Angels wordes how is Christes bodye in many places at once If Christs body be in many places at once then Christs body is infinit if it be infinite then Christes humanity is eyther abolished of made infinite by being turned into the godhead which are grosse heresies fauour the moÌ„strous opinioÌ„s of Eutiches SchweÌ„kfeldins Obiection The diuinity humanity are vnited in Christ therefore where the godhead is the maÌ„hood is likewise but the godhead is euery where therefore the manhood is euery where Answeare The person of Christ is but one and yet in doth so coÌ„sist of two natures that the proprieties of ech nature doeth must remayne whole without confusion to their seuerall natures For to deny or confounde the proprieties Lib. 4. cont Eutish is to confounde the natures Vigilius saith that Christ is contayned in a place by the nature of his fleshe and is not contayned in a place by the nature of his godhead Epist 57. ad Dardanum Augustine is very pleÌ„tifull flat for this point in one of his epistles I confesse that the proprieties of Christes maÌ„hood may be applied to his godhead contrarimise that the proprieties of his godhead may bee applied to his maÌ„hood but yet without coÌ„fouÌ„ding the natures as for exaÌ„ple Christes passion doth pertaine to his flesh according to the proprietie of nature and if pertaynes to the worde that is to saye Christes godhead according to the person Vigil lib. 2. cont Eutich because there is one and the selfe same person both of the worde and
are glad of this and do therefore think very hardly of corrupt mē which will not be restrayned and reformed eyther by Gods and the Queenes both lawes and speech or by the woorthye example of Constantinus or by the testimonye of their owne consciences which cannot but both accuse condēne them They which present mē to ecclesiastical liuings are called patrons that is to say defenders of the church to keepe back either all or part of the church liuinges is not to be a shielde to couer the Churche and the Minister but a sworde to cut them and therefore they may iustly be called the schollers of Lysimachus the Churchrobber which was slaine for his villanies 2. Machab. chap. 4. ver 42. If a patrone preferre a minister for monye and corruption hee must needs thinke hardly and vily of that minister the minister likewise of that patrone for who can like a minister when he feeles his corruption and what minister though hee fishe with a siluer hooke wil accompt of that patrons friendship which he payes so deare for and what good men can like of eyther him that preferres or is preferred in this sorte will they not iudge them to bee straunge market men Ierohoam made Priestes of the lowest of the people which were not of the sōnes of Leui 1. Kings chap 12. ver 31. chap. 13. ver 33. but hee did it for monye For the like respect I feare manye haue beene preferred which cannot be allowed for Prophets because they neuer were the sonnes of the Prophets I haue handeled these poyntes I trust for the good of all that they which are guiltie of this sinne may make restitution and leaue the practise of it and that they which are not guiltie of it may take good heede that they fall not into that sinke of corruption If anye be offended with this I haue set downe it is their faulte and not mine for the seed which I haue sowen is very good but the ground which receiues it not is very bad but my comfort is this that I haue pleased almighty God and his seruauntes in this godly labour though this certayne truthe bee a shut booke as a sealed letter vnto graceles Cormorantes Question Whether landes and pensions giuen for the maintenance of Idolatrie may and ought to be conuerted to the seruice of God Answere They may ought for if mē should conuert them to their priuate vse it might bee iustly thought that in abolishing superstition priuate gaine is the marke which is louelled at and not the promoting of Gods true religion This is Augustines iudgement in a notable and learned Epistle Aug. epist 154 ad Publicolam and deserues to be greatly liked of To the Reader SInce the printing of the first part of my Catechisme I haue bin earnestly dealt with to write somewhat of the Sacraments The request was verie equall and I haue yeelded to it as appeareth by these Treatises The course I haue taken in them is plaine and short If they shall profite such as haue neede of instruction I will thanke God very humbly for it and hereafier by Gods assistance set downe another short Treatise of the Scripture and the Church and Confession for their further benefit These points are waighty but necessary arguments to be handled yet very breesly because the memories of the simple are verie shorte and long discourses are not easily digested by them God giue vs grace to increase in the knowledge of his truth and to frame our liues accordingly to his glorie and our comforte through Iesus Christ A Table of such poyntes as are contained in the first part of this Treatise 1 VVHat a Sacrament is 2 There are but two Sacramēts Baptisme the Lords supper the other fiue which went vnder the name of Sacraments are no Sacraments 3 It is not in any mans power to make a Sacrament 4 Whether the Sacraments of the olde and new testament are all one and howe they differ 5 The Sacramēts must not be administred at all aduentures to euery one 6 The signe must not bee confounded with the thing fignified in the Sacramēt 7 The Sacraments are not to be esteemed better for the worthines of the minister or the worse for his vnworthines 8 The Sacramentall signes offer grace vnto all but doe not of their owne nature conferre grace vnto all that doe receiue them 9 Why almighty God would haue the external signes in the Sacramēts to consist of very simple and vsuall things 10 The Sacraments are not naked bare signes 11 The Sacramentes must haue the word of God annexed to them 12 Gods Church hath neede of Sacraments so long as it is in this world 13 The Sacraments are highly to bee esteemed 14 The contempt of the Sacramentes is very daungerous 15 The Sacraments during the tyme of the action of Baptisme of the Lords supper are Sacraments but after the action is ended they are no Sacraments 16 What good we receiue by the Sacraments ⧠A Treatise of the Sacraments 1 What a Sacrament is A Sacrament is a visible signe of an inuisible grace 2 There are but two Sacramentes Baptisme and the Lordes Supper The other fiue which went vnder the name of Sacramentes that is to say Matrimonie Orders Pennaunce Extreme vnction and Confirmation are no Sacramentes SAynt Paule prouing that the Israelites were equal vnto thē of Corinth 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 2. 3. and consequently of vs in the externall signes of Gods fauour nameth onelye Baptisme and the Lordes Supper wherein hee had dealt verie strangely if of seuen Sacramentes he had left out fiue Two thinges are especially ioyntly required vnto euery necessary Sacrament of the Churche First a sēsible outward element Secondly the word of institution the element in Baptisme is water the elementes in the Lords Supper are bread wyne the word of institution in baptisme is that which is pronounced by the minister I baptize thee in the name of the Father of the Sonne Math. chap. 28. ver 19. and of the holye Ghost the word of institutiō in the Lords supper is 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 23.24.25 The Lorde Iesus the same night that he was betrayed tooke bread and when he had giuen thanks he brake it and sayde take eate this is my bodie which is broken for you this do ye in remembrance of me After the same maner also he tooke the cup when hee had supped saying this cup is the new Testament in my blood this doe as oft as yee drinke it in remembrance of me Matrimony orders pennance haue the word of God but no outward element Extreme vnction and Confirmation haue neither word nor element Obiection for Matrimony For this cause shall a man leaue father Ephes chap. 5. ver 31 3◠and mother and shal cleaue to his wife they twayne shall be one flesh this is a great mysterie that is to say Sacramēt as the Church of
priuate to the minister alone When our Sauiour Christ did institute the holy supper commend it to his apostles Math. chap. 26. ver 26.27 he did neither eate drink alone for them nor cōmaunded that one of them shoulde eate and drinke for the rest but he sayde take yee eate yee c. Likewise drinke yee all of this c. 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. The Apostle calleth the cup of blessing c the communion of the bloud of Christ and the bread which wee breake the communion of the bodie of Christ by which wordes it is manifest that the holie Supper must bee no priuate banquet Saint Paule willeth them of Corinth 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 33. when they come together to eate to tarry one for another which words doe euidently condemne all priuate and alone pertaking of this holye Sacrament If any saye that Paules wordes proue not my purpose because they are to be refered to the Corinthian loue feastes my answere is that the Apostles wordes doe make greatly for my purpose though it were as they fay because the feasts of Corinth were ioyned with the celebration of the holie communion In the time of Iustinus Martyr al that were present in the holie assembly did cōmunicate Apol 2 pro Christ Priuate Masses as yet were neither borne nor conceiued c. 8 Gods people must not bee barred from the cup in the Lordes Supper Christ at the first institution of the holy Supper said drinke ye al of this Math. chap. 26. ver 27. c. If the papists say that Christ spake vnto the Apostles onely my answere is that they may as wel barre Gods people from the bread of the Sacrament because onely the Apostles were partakers of the bread as well as of the cup at the institution of the Supper Let a man examine himselfe 1. Cor. chap. 11. ver 28. and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this cup c. Saint Paule ioynes the bread and cup together how then dare any man make a diuorce betweene the bread and the cup Saint Paule speaketh to the whole body of the Church howe dare anye man presume to barre Gods people from the cup and to restrayne it to the popish priestes The breaking of the bread and distributing of the cup to the communicants are essential parts of the holy supper therfore may not be omitted or altred In Iustinus Martyres tyme after cōsecration of the bread and cup Apol. 2. pro Christ both bread and cup were distributed to the communicants In Cyprians Ambroses and Chrisostomes time Cyp. lib. 1. Epist 2. Theodoritus lib. 5. cap. 18. Chrysost in cap. 8. epist 2. ad Corinth Hom. 18. Gods people were partakers of the cup in the Lords supper Innocentius the 3. was the first that shut Gods people frō the cup in the Lordes supper He did this strāge fact in the Laterane councell in the yeare of our Lorde 1215. 9 What consecration is Consecration is a dedicating to the holy vse of the supper of so much bread wine as shal be occupied in the celebration of the holy communiō and neither more nor lesse Cōsecratiō stādeth not in the abolishing of natures but in the conuerting of the naturall elemēts into a godly vse This is cleere in both the sacramēts whē the minister hath added the word of institutiō to the water it is no more common water but baptisme which is a Sacramēt of our Regeneratiō Whē he hath done the like to the elemēts of bread wine it is no more cōmon bread common wyne but the sacrament of the body bloud of Christ Iesus yet the substaunce of water is not abolished in baptisme nor the substance of bread and wine in the Lords supper If anie say that the meate which is set on the table at dinner supper 1. Tim. chap. 4. ver 5. is dedicated to a godly vse when it is sanctified by the worde of God prayer I grāt it to be so but there is another signification of that then of this in the sacramēt We obtaine by the word of God prayer the lawful vse of Gods creatures at our dinners suppers that if any iot of Gods first curse vpō the earth and fruites thereof remained it shal not be hurtfull to vs but the elemēts signes in the sacraments become more excellēt things by many degrees for by Gods worde institution they are made signes mysteries of our saluation 10 The substance of bread and wine remaine in the Lordes Supper after the words of Consecration The bread which we breake in the Lords supper 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 16. is it not the partaking of the body of Christ Saint Paule doeth expressely call that which is broken bread not the Accidents of bread I will not hence forth drinke of this fruite of the vine c. by the fruite of the Mat. cha 26 ver 29. vine our Sauiour Christ meaneth wyne not the accidentes of wyne By Accidents of bread wine are vnderstāded the colour roundnes breadth tast c. of bread and wyne The worde of institution is added to the Element and it is made a Sacrament Tract 80. in Iohan. Augustine saith not that it taketh away or expelleth the element Tertullian calles that bread by which Christ represented his bodie Tertul. lib. 1. cont Mar. The same Tertullian labouring to prooue that Christ had not a fantasticall body as the Heretique Marcion imagined but a true body reasons thus frō the sacramēt Christ did giue bread in the sacrament for a true figure of his body lib. 4. cont Mar. therefore Christ had not a fantasticall but a true bodie If no substance of bread remayne in the Lordes Supper which the Papistes hold Tertullians argument against Marcion were verye weake and Marcions monstrous opinion were very strong If we say that Christes bodie is made of the substance of bread how is it true that his body was made of the substāce of the blessed virgin There must be alwayes an Analogie betweene the signe and the thing fignified in the sacrament The Analogie in the holy supper appeareth in ferding The body bloud of Christ doth feed our soules the bread and wine doeth feed our bodies If the substāce of bread wine bee abolished what is left to feede our bodies If the popish sort say that the Accidēts of bread wine doe feede vs they teach strange both diuinitie and philosophie straunge diuinitie because they are manifestly confuted by Christ and Paule straunge philosphie Math. chap. 26. verse 26. 1. Cor. chap. 10. ver 17. Arist cap. 5. de sensu sensili because they reuiue an olde and grosse errour of the Pithagoreans confuted long agoe by Aristotle Besides the Philosophers teach vs that wee consist of the same thinges wherewith we are nourished If we be fedd and nourished with Accidents the