The Eating And Drinking. 201
THE
EATING AND DRINKING.
papists would say, that such have everlasting CHlP. life.
But as the Devil is the food of the wicked, which he nourisheth in all iniquity, and bringeth up unto everlasting damnation: so is Christ the very food of all them that be the lively members of his body, and them he nourisheth, feedeth, bringeth up, and cherisheth unto everlasting life.a • Aug. In Joan. Hom. 26. super hunc locum: Patres vestri manducaverunt manna in deserto, et mortui sunt. "Quantum,
"inquit, pertinet ad mortem istam visibilem et corporalem, " numquid no:s non morimur, qui manducamus panem de crelo
" descendentem 1 "
Et mox, "Quantum autem pertinet ad illam "mortem de qua terret Dominus, quia mortui sunt patres isto- " rum, manducavit manna et Moses, manducavit et Aaron, man- " ducavit manna et Phineas, manducaverunt ibi multi, qui " Domino placuerunt, et mortu1 non sunt.
Quare 1 Quia "visibilem cibum spiritualiter intellexerunt, spiritualiter esuri- " .::!runt, spiritualiter gustaverunt, ut spirituahter satiarentur.
":N'am et nos hodie accepimus visibilem cibum, s~d aliud est sac- " ramentum, aliud virtus •sacramenti.
Quam multi de altari ac- " cipiunt et moriuntur, et accipiendo moriuntur1 Unde dicit "Apostol us:
(1 Cor. xi.) J udicium sibi manducat et bibit.
"Nonne buocella dominica venenum fuit Judre1 (John xiii.) Et "tamen accepit, et cum accepit, in eum inimicus intravit, non " quia malum accepit, sed qu1a bonum malus male accepit.
" V1de te ergo, fratres, panem ccelestem spirituabter manducate.''
Et mox:
"Patres vestri manna manducaverunt, et mortui "sunt; non quia malum erat manna, sed quia male manduca- " verunt.
Hie est Panis qui de calo descendit, hunc panem "significavit manna, hunc panem significavit altare DeL Sac- " ramenta ilia fuerunt, in signis di versa sunt, sed in re qme "significatur, paria sunt," &c. Et mox: "Ut si quis mandu- " caverit ex ipso non moriatur in fEternum.
Sed quod pertinet "ad virtutem sacramenti, non quod pertinet ad visibile sacra- " mentum.
Qui manducat intus, non foris, qui manducat in "corde, non qui premit dente."
E:r,rnn.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK IV.
CHAP.
And every good and faithful Christian man n. feeleth in himself how he feedeth of Christ, eating
What is • d d . k' f h' bl d the eatin~ his flesh an rm mg o is oo .
For he of Obrist s • 11.e~h,_and putteth the whole hope and trust of his redemp- :r:!wg tion and salvation in that only sacrifice, which blood.
Christ made upon the cross, having his body there broken, and his blood there shed for the remission of his sins. And this great benefit of Christ the faithful man earnestly considereth in his mind, chaweth [ cheweth] and digesteth it with the stomach of his heart, spiritually receiving Christ wholly into him, and giving again himself wholly unto Christ.
And this is the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood, the feeling whereof is to every man the feeling how he eateth and drinketh
Christ, which none evil man nor member of the Devil can do.
CHAP.
For as Christ is a spiritual meat, so is he -~ spiritually eaten and digested with the spiritual
Obnat11 f d . h . . l d not eaten part o us, an g1vet us sp1r1tua an eternal life, withteetb, d .
d d d' d . h but with an 1s not eaten, swa owe , an igeste wit faith.
• our teeth, tongues, throats, and belhes.
"Therefore," .saith St. Cyprian\ "he that bCyprianus, De Cana Domini.
[See note i, p. 49.J
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
"drinketh of the holy citp, remembering this CHAP.
III.
" benefit of God, is more thirsty than he was--- " before. And lifting up his heart unto the living
" God, is taken with such a singular hunger and "appetite, that he abhoreth all gally and bitter " drinks of sin ; and all savour of carnal pleasure
" is to him, as it were, sharp and sour vinegar. And "the sinner being converted, receiving the holy
" mysteries of the Lord's Supper, giveth thanks " unto God, and boweth down his head, knowin~
" that his sins be forgiven, and that he is made "clean and perfect; and his soul, which God hath
" sanctified, he rendereth to God again as a faithful "pledge, and then he glorieth with Paul, and "rejoiceth, saying, Now it is not I that live, but it
" is Christ that liveth within me.
These things '' be practised and used among faithful people ; " and to pure minds the eating of his flesh is no "horror but honour, and the spirit delighteth in " the drinking of the holy and sanctifying blood.
" And doing this, we whet not our teeth to bite, but " with pure faith we break the holy "bread."
These be the words of Cyprian.
And according unto the same, St. Austen saith, "Prepare not thy jaws, but thy heart 0."
And in another place\ he saith, " Why dost " thou prepare thy belly and thy teeth ? believe,
" and thou hast eaten." But of this matter is sufficiently spoken before, where it is proved, that 0 In Toan. Tract. 25.
4 August. De Verbis Domini, Senn. 33.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK "to eat Christ's flesh" and '' drink his blood" be IV. fi gurative speeches 8, 01-# P.
And now to return to our purpose, that only The good the lively members of Christ do eat his flesh and ~1 1J1~~t drink his blood, I shall bring forth many other places of ancient authors before not mentioned.
First, Origent writeth plainly after this manner:
" The Word was made flesh and very meat, " which whoso eateth shall surely live for ever ;
"which no evil man can eat.
For if it could be " that he that continueth evil might eat the Word " made flesh, seeing that he is the Word and " bread of life, it should not have been written,
" Whosoever eateth this "bread, shall live for ever."
•Aug.In foan. Tract. 26. "Credere in eum, hoc est mandu- " care panem vivum.
Qui credit in eum, manducat, inv1sibili- " ter saginatur, quia et invisibiliter rena.scitur.
Infans intus "est, novus intus eat, ubi novellatur, ibi satiatur."
Idem, Psal.
21 in ExPositione Prima, " Sacramenta corporis et sanguinis " mei reddam coram timentibus eum.
Edent paujleres et '' saturabunt11r, edent humiles et contemptores seculi et imita- " buntur.
Ita enim nee copiam hujus seculi concupiscent nee "timebunt inopiam.
Et laudabunt Domin um qui requirunt "eum : nam lau:s Domini est eructatio saturitatis illius.
Vivent "corda eorum in seculum seculi; nam cib.us ille cordis est."
Clemens Alexandrinus in Padagogo, lib. ii. cap. 2.
" Hoc "est bibere Jesu sanguinem, esse participem incorruptioms "Domini."
De Consecrat. dist. 2. "Utrum:
" "Quia Christum faa "vorari den ti bus non est," &c. EMBD. r Origenes, In Matt. cap. 15.
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
These words be so plain, that I need say nothing CHAP.
IV. for the more clear declaration of them.
Where---fore you shall hear how Cyprian agreeth with him.
Cyprian, in his Sermon ascribed unto him of the Lord's Suppe~, saith, "The author of this
" tradition said, that except we eat his flesh and " drink his blood we should have no life in us ; in- " ~tructing us with a spiritual lesson, and opening
" to us a way to understand so privy a thing, that " we should know that the eating is our dwelling
" in him, and our drinking is as it were an incor- " poration in him, being subject unto him in "obedience, joined unto him in our wills, and " united in our affections.
The eatin,q therefore oJ " this flesh, is a certain hunger and desire to " dwell in him."
Thus writeth Cyprian of the eating and drinking of Christ.
And a little after he saith, that " none do eat of this Lamb, but such as be true
"Israelites, that is to say, pure Christian men, "without colour or dissimulation."
And Athanasiush, speaking of the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood, saith, that " for this cause he made mention of his ascension
"into heaven, to pluck them from corporal phan- " tasy, that they might learn hereafter that his
" flesh was called the celestial meat that came "from above, and a spiritual food which he would John vi.
"give.
For those things that I speak to you, 11 Cyprianus in Serml1. de C<Ena Domini.
[See note i, p. 49.] 11 Athanasius, De Peccato in Spiritum Sanctum.
DEFENCE, &c.
"saith he, be spirit and life: Which is as much "to say, as that thing which you see, shall be
"slain and given for the nourishment of the world, '' that it may .be distributed to every body spiri- " tually, and be to all men a conservation unto
" the resurrection of eternal ]ife."
BOOK ry.
In these words Athanasius declareth the cause why Christ made mention of his ascension into heaven, when he spake of the eating and drinking of his flesh and blood. The: cause after Athanasius's mind was this, that his bearers should not think of any carnal eating of his body with their mouths; for as concerning the presence of his body, he should be taken from them, and ascend into heaven ; but that they should understand him to be a spiritual meat, and spiritualJy to be eaten, and by that refreshing to give eternal life, which he doth to none but to such as be his lively members.
And of this eating speaketh also Basilius', that " we eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood, being
" made, by his incarnation and sensible life, par- " takers of his word and wisdom.
For his flesh " and blood he called all his mystical conversation " here in his flesh and his doctrine, consisting of " his whole life, pertaining both to his humanity
"and DiYinity, whereby the soul is nourished and "brought to the contemplation of things eternal."
Thus teacheth Basilius how we eat Christ's 1 Basilms, Epistola 141.
THE EATING
AND DRINKING.
-flesh and drink his blood, which pert,aineth only CHAP.
IV. to the true and faithful members of Christ.
St. Hierome also saith\ "All that love pleasure "' more than God, eat not the flesh of Jesu, nor "' drink his blood; of the which himself saith, He
" that eatcth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath ·" everlasting life."
And in another place1, St. Hierome saith, that "' heretics do not eat and drink the body and blood
" of the Lord."
And moreover he saithm, that "heretics eat not " the flesh of Jesu, whose flesh is the meat of ·" faithful men."
Thus agreeth St. Hierome with the other before rehearsed, that heretics and such as follow worldly ple11,sures, eat not Christ's flesh nor drink his blood, because that Christ said, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life.
And St. Ambrose saithn, that "Jesus is the " bread which is the meat of saints ; and that he
"that taketh this bread, dieth not a sinner's "death; for this bread is the 1·emission of sins."
And in another book to him entitled 0 , he writeth thus: "This bread of life which came from " heaven doth minister everlasting life, and who- " soever eateth this bread shall not die for ever,
"and is the body of Christ." k Hieronymus In Esaiam, cap. 66.
1 In Hieremiam, cap. 22. m In Oseam, cap. 8. n Ambrosius, De Benedictione Patriarcharum, cap. 9.
0 De iis qui Mysteriis initiantur.
[See note pp. 53 and 54.J
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK And yet in another bookP set forth in his name,.
IV.
---he saith on this wise: "He that did eat manna.
"died, but he that eateth this body shall have "remission of his sins, and shall not die fO'I· eve"r."
And again he saithq, " As often as thou drinkest, "thou hast remission of thy sins."
These sentences of St. Ambrose be so plain in this matter, that there needeth no more but only the rehearsal of them.
But St. Augustine in many places plainly discussing this matter, saithr: "He that agreeth
" not with Christ, doth neither eat his body nor "drink his blood, although to the condemnation
'" of his presumption he receive every day the "sacrament of so high a matter."
And moreover St. Augustine most plainly resolveth this matter in his book De Civitate
Dei•, disputing against two kinds of heretics :
Whereof the one said. that as many as were christened and received the sacrament of Christ's body and blood should be saved, howsoever they
John vi. lived or believed ; because that Christ said, Thi$ is the bread that came from heaven ; that whosoever shall eat thereof shall not die. I am the bread of life, which came fi·om heaven ; whosoever shall eat of this bread. ,,;hall live for ever. Therefore, said these heretics, all such men must needs be delivered from eternal death and at length be
P De Sacrainentis, lib. iv. cap. 5. q Lib. v. cap. 3. r Lib. Sentent. Prosperi ex Augustino, cap. 339.
• De Civitate Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 25.
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
brought to eternal life. The other said, that OH AP.
IV heretics and schismatics might eat the sacrament--of Christ's body, but not his very body; because they be no members of his body. And therefore they promised not everlasting life to all that received Christ's baptism and the sacrament of his body, but to all such as professed a true faith, although they lived never so ungodly.
For such, said they, do eat the body of Christ, not only in a sacrament but also in deed, because they be members of Christ's body.
But St. Augustine, answering to both these heresies, saith, that neither heretics, nor such as profess a true faith in their mouths and in their living show the contrary, have either a true faith which worketh by charity and doth none evil, or are to be counted among the members of Christ.
For they cannot be both members of Christ and Gal. v. members of the Devil'.
"Therefore," saith he, l " it may not be said, that any of them eat the body "of Ch.rrist." "For when Christ saith, He that t "Qui ergo est," inquit [Augustinus], "in corporis Christi "unitate, id est, in Chri"Stianorum compage membrorum (cujus
"corporis sacramentum fideles communicantes de altari sumere " consueverunt) ipse vere dicendus est ma.nducare corpus " Christi et bibere sanguinem Christi.
Ac per hoc hreretici et "schismatici, ab hujus unitate corporis separati, possunt idem
"percipere sacra.mentum, sed non sibi utile, immo vero etiam "noxium.''
Et mox: "Recte intelligunt non dicendum eum "manducare corpus Christi, qui in corpore non est Christi."
Et mox: "Nee isti, ergo, dicendi sunt manducare corpus Christi, "quoniam nee in membris computandi sunt Christi.
Ut enim " alia taceam, non possunt simul esse et membra Christi, et "membra meretricis.
Denique ipse dicens:
Qui manducat,"
&c.
EMBD.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK "eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth IV.
--- "in me and I in him; he showeth what it is, not "sacramentally, but in deed, to eat his body and " dri,nk his blood : which is, when a man dwelleth
" so in Christ, that Christ dwelleth in him.
For• "Christ spake those words, as if he should say, " He that dwelleth not in me, and in whom I " dwell not, let him not say or think, that he eateth
"my body or drinketh my blood."
These be the plain words of St. Augustine, that such as live ungodly, although they may seem to eat Christ's body, because they eat the sacrament of his body, yet in deed they neither be members of his body, nor do eat his body.
Also upon the Gospel of St. Johnu he saith, that " he that doth not eat his flesh and drink his
" blood, hath not in him everlasting life.
And he "that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood, hath " everlasting life. But it is no-t so in those meats
" which we take to sustain our bodies ; for '' although without them we cannot live, yet it is
"not necessary that whosoever receiveth them "shall live, for they may die by age, sickness, or " other chances.
" But in this meat and drink of the body and " blood of our Lor~, it is otherwise ; for both they
" that eat and drink them not have not everlasting "life : and contrariwise, whosoever eat and drink
" them have e1.Jerlasting lifex."
"In Joan. Tract, 26, " Et mox: "Hunc 1taque cibum et potum societatem vult "intelligi corporis et membrorum suorum, quod est sancta
THE EATING
AND DRINKING.
·Note and ponder well these words of St. CHAP, .
IV.
Augustme, that the bread and wme and other--meats and drinks which nourish the body, a man may eat, and nevertheless die ; but the very body and blood of Christ no man eateth but that hath everlasting life.. So that wicked men cannot eat nor drink them, for then they must needs have by them everlasting life.
And in the same place St. Augustine saith further : " The sacrament of the unity of Christ's
" body and blood is taken in the Lord's table of " some men to life, and of some men to death ;
"but the thing itself, whereof it is a sacrament, is " taken of all men to life, and of no man to '' death."
And moreover he saith, "This is to "eat that meat and drink that drink, to dwell in " Christ and to have Christ dwelling in him.
" And for that cause, he that dwelleth not in " Christ, and in whom Christ dwelleth not, without '' doubt he eateth not spiritually his flesh, nor '' drinketh his blood, although carnally and visibly
"with his teeth he bite the sacrament of his body " and bloodY."
Thus writeth St. Augustine in the twenty-sixth Homily of St. John.
And in the next Homily "Ecclesia in prredestinatis et vocatis et justi:ficatis et glori:6.- " catis sanctis et :fidelibus ejus."
Et mox: "Hujus rei sacra- " mentum, id est, unitatis corporis et sanguinis Christi, alicubi "quotidie, alicubi certis intervallis dierum, in Dominica mensa "prreparatur, et de mensa Dominica sumitur quibusdam ad "vitam, quibusdam ad exitium,"
&c. EMBD.
1 "Sed magis tantre rei sacramentum ad jy.dicium s1bi man- " ducat."
EMBD,
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK followingz he writeth thus: "This day our sermon IV.
" is of the body of the Lord, lvhich he said he " would give to eat for eternal life. And he de- " clared the manner of his gift and distribution,
John vi " how he would give his flesh to eat, saying, He "that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
" dwelleth in me, and I in him.
This therefore " is a token or knowledge, that a man hath eaten " and drunken, that is to .say, if he dwell in Christ
" and have Christ duelling in him; if he cleave so " to Christ, that he is not severed from him.
" This therefore Christ taught and admonished by "these mystical or figurative words, that we " should be in his body under him our head
" among his members, . eating his flesh, not " forsaking his unity "
And in his book De Doctrina Christianaa., St.
Augustine saith, (as before is at length declared,) that " to eat Christ's flesh and to drink his blood,
" is a figurative speech, signifying the participa- " tion of his passion, and the delectable remem- " brance to our benefit and profit, that his flesh
" was crucified and wounded for us."
And in another Sermon also, De Verbis Apostoli 0 , he expounded what is the eating of Christ's body, and the drinking of his blood, saying, "The eating
" is to be refreshed, and the drinking, what is it " but to live ? Eat life, drink life. And that "shall be, when that which is taken visibly in the • Zn 1 oan. Tract. 27.
• De Doctrina Christiana, lib. iii. cap. 14.
0 De Verbis APostoli, Serm. 2.
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
" sacrament, is in very deed eaten spiritually and "drunken spiritually."
CHAP.
IV.
By all these sentences of St. Augustine, it is evident and manifest, that all men, good and evil, may with their mouths visibly and sensibly eat the sacrament of Christ's body and blood; but the very body and blood themselves be uot eaten but spiritually, and that of the spiritual members of Christ, which dwell in Christ, and have Christ dwelling in them, by whom they be refreshed, and have everlasting life.
And therefore, saith St Augustinea, that when the other Apostles did eat bread that was the Lord, yet Judas did eat but the bread of the Lord, and not the bread that was the L(Yrd. So that the other Apostles, with the sacramental bread, did eat also Christ himself, whom .Judas did not eat.
And a great number of places mo hath St.
Augustine 0 for this purpose, which for eschewing of tediousness I let pass for this time, and will speak something of St. Cyril. d In Joan. Tract. 59.
• August.
In Psal. 21, in ExPositione 248• "Vota mea " reddam coram timentibus eum.
Qure sunt vota sua.1
Sac- " rificium quod obtulit Deo. Nostis qua.le sacrificium 1 Norunt "fideleis vota. qum reddit coram timentibus eum. Nam sequitur:
"Edent pauperes, et saturabuntur.
Bea.ti pauperes, quia ideo "edunt, ut sa.turentur.
Edunt enim pauperes, qui autem "divites sunt, non sa.tia.ntur, qma. non esur1unt.
Comedent "pauperes, inde erat p1scator ille Petrus, inde erat alius pisca- " tor Joannes, et Jacobus frater 1psius, inde erat etiam publi- " canus Matthreus de pa.uperibus.
Ipsi erant, qui comederunt "et saturati sunt, ta.lia passi, qualia manducaverunt.
Crenam " suam ded1t, pa.ssionem sua.m dedit.
Ille saturatur qui imita-
DEFENCE, &c.
Cyril, upon St. John in his GospeP, saith, that "those which eat manna died, because they
"received thereby no strength to live ever, (for it "gave no life, but only put away bodily hunger;)
" but they that receive the bread of life shall be '' made immortal, and shall eschew all the evils
" that pertain to death, living with Christ for "ever."
A~d in another placeg he saith: "For- " asmuch as the flesh of Christ doth naturally
" git,e life, therefore it maketh them to live that be "partakers of it. For it putteth death away from " them, and utterly driveth destruction out of "them.''
BOOK IV.
And he concludeth the matter shortly in another placeh in few words, saying, that "when we eat
" the flesh of our Savio11.r, then have we life in us.
"For if ;things that were corrupt were restored "tur.
Imitati sunt pauperes, ipsi enim sic passi sunt, ut "Christi vestigia seq11ere11tur." &c. Et mox:
"Sacrinciuro "pacis, sacrific1um char1tatis, sacri:6.cium corporis sui norunt.
" :6.deles, d1sputari inde modo non potest.
Vota mea reddain "corain timentibus eum. Edant publicani, edant piscatores, "manducerit, imitentur Dominum, patiantur, saturentur."
Idem, De Ver/Jis Domini, Sermon. 53. "Quicunque in cor- " pore eJUS et membrorum ejus esse voluerit, non miretur qu1a
'' odit eum mundus.
Corporis autem ejus sacramentum multi "accipiunt, sed non omnes qui accipiunt sacramentum, hab1- " turi sunt apud eum etiam locum promissum membris ejus.
"Pene quidem sacramentum omnes corpus ejus dicunt, quia.
"omnes in pascuis ejus siniul pascunt, sed venturus est, qui "dividat, et alios ponat ad .dexteram, alios ad sinistram."
Beda., in Hoinilia quad am Paschali.
"Aderit nobis Chr1stus " in fractione panis. cum sacramenta corporis ejus, videlicet,
" panis et vini, cast a et simphci conscientia sumimus. '' EMBD, r Cyrillus, In Joan. lib. iv. cap. 10.
1 Cap. 12. h Cap. 14.
THE EATING
AND DRINKING.
" by only touching of his clothes, how can it be c II AP.
IV.
" that we shall not live that eat his flesh?"
And--further1 he saith, that '' as two waxes that be "molten together do run every part into other,
"so he that receiveth Christ's flesh and blood must " needs be Joined so with him, that Christ must be
" in him, and he in Christ."
· Here St. Cyril declareth the dignity of Christ's flesh, being inseparably annexed unto his Divinity, saying, that it is of such force and power, that it giveth everlasting life. And whatsoever occasion of death it findeth, or let of eternal life, it putteth out and driveth clean away all the same from them that eat that meat and receive that medicine.
Other medicines or plasters sometimes heal, and sometimes heal not; but this medicine is of that effect and strength, that it eateth away all rotten and dead flesh, and perfectly healeth all wounds and sores that it is laid unto.
This is the dignity and excellency of Christ's flesh and blood joined to his Divinity ; of the which dignity Christ's adversaries, the papists, deprive and rob him, when they affirm that such men do eat his flesh and receive this plaster, as remained still sick and sore, and be not holpen thereby.
1 Cap 17.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK And now for corroboration of Cyril's saying, I IV. would thus reason with the papists, and demand
CHAP. of them: When an unrepentant sinner receiveth v. the sacrament, whether he have Christ's body within him or no 1 If they say no, then have I my purpose, that evil men, although they receive the sacrament of Christ's body, yet receive thef not his very body.
If they say yea, then I would ask them further :
Whether they have Christ's Spirit within them or no1 If they say nay, then do they separate Christ's body from his Spirit, and his humanity from his
Divinity, and be condemned by the ScFipture as very Antichrists that divide Christ.
And if they say yea, that a wicked man hath Christ's Spirit in him, then the Scripture also
Rom, viii. condemneth them, saying, that as he which hath no Spirit of Christ's is none of his; so he that hath Christ in him, liveth, because he is justified.
And, If his Spirit that raised Jesus from death dwell in you, he that raised Christ from death shall give life to your mortal bodies for his Spirit's sake which dwelleth in you.
Thus on every side the Scripture condemneth the adversaries of God's word.
And this wickedness of the papists is to be wondered at, that they affirm Christ's fiesh, blood, soul, holy Spirit, and his Deity to be in a man that is subject to sin and a limb of the Devil.
They be wonderful jugglers and conjurers, that
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
with certain words can make God and the c HAP.
Devil to dwell together in one man, and make him both the temple of God and the temple of the Devil.
It appeareth that they be so blind, that they cannot see the light from darkness, Belial from Christ, nor the table of the Lord from the table of devils.
Thus is confuted this third intolerable error and heresy of the papists, that they which be the limbs of the Devil do eat the very body of Christ and drink his blood, manifestly and directly contrary to the words of Christ himself, who saith, Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hctth everlasting life.
But lest they should seem to have nothing to c HAP. say for themselves, they allege St. Paul, in the Th:1. eleventh to the Corinthians, where he saith, answer to .
• the paHe that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth piste. and drinketh his own dwmnation, not discerning 1 Cor. xi. the Lord's body.
But St. Paul in that place speaketh of the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine, and not of the corporal eating of Christ's flesh and blood, as it is manifest to every man that will read the text: for these be the words of St. Paul:
Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread, and drink of the cup; for he that eateth
DEFENCE, &c.
B rv~ K and drinlceth unworthily eateth and drinlceth his own damnation, not discerning the Lord's body.
In these words St. Paul's mind is, that forasmuch as the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper do represent unto us the very body and blood of our Saviour Christ, by his own institution and ordinance ; therefore, although he sit in heaven at his Father's right hand, yet should we come to this mystical bread and wine with faith, reverence, purity, and fear, as we would do, if we· should come to see and receive Christ himself sensibly present.
For unto the faithful, Christ is at his own ho~y table present with his mighty Spirit and grace, and is of them more fruitfully received, than if corporally they should receive him bodily present. · And therefore they that shall worthily come to this God's board, must after due trial of themselves consider, first who ordained this table, also what meat and drink they shall have that come thereto, and how they ought to behave themselves thereat.
He that prepared the table is Christ himself The meat and drink wherewith he feedeth them that come thereto as they ought to do, is his own body, flesh, and blood. They that come thereto must occupy their minds in considering, how his body was broken for them, and his blood shed for their redemption.
And so ought they to approach to this heavenly table with all humbleness of heart, and godliness of mind, as to the table wherein Christ himself is given.
And they that come otherwise to this
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
2L9 holy table, they come unworthily, and do not eat o ~t P. and drink Christ's flesh and blood, but eat and--drink their own damnation ; because they do not duly consider Christ's very flesh and blood, which be offered there spiritually to be eaten and drunken, but despising Christ's most holy Supper, do come thereto as it were to other common meats and drinks, without regard of the Lord's body, which is the spiritual meat of that table.
But here may not be passed over the answer CHAP. unto certain places of ancient authors, which at vn. the first show seem to make for the papists' ;;.~er to purpose, that evil men do eat and drink the very ~;ists' flesh and blood of Christ.
But if those places be auth0rs. truly and thoroughly weighed, it shall appear that not one of them maketh for their error, that evil men do eat Christ's very body.
The first place is of St. Augustine, Contra Cresconium Grammaticumk, where he saith, that " although Christ himself say, He that eateth not " my flesh and drinketh not my blood, shall not " have life in him: yet doth not his Apostles teach
" that the same is pernicious to them which use it "not well? for he saith, Whosoever eateth the " bread and drinketh t~ cup of the Lord un- .. Augustinus, Contra Cresconfum, lib. i. cap. 25.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK "worthily, shall be guilty of the 1>ody and blood of IV.
--- " the Lord.'
In which words St. Augustine seemeth to conclude, that as well the evil as the good do eat the body and blood of Christ, a1though the evil have no benefit, but hurt thereby.
·But consider the p1ace of St. Augustine diligently, and then it shall evidently appear, that he meant not of the eating of Christ's body, but of the sacrament thereof. For the intent of St.
Augustine there is to prove, that good things avail not to such persons as do evil use them ; and that many things which of themselves be good, and be good to some, yet to other some they be. not good. As the light is good for who]e eyes, and hurteth sore eyes ; that meat which is good for some, is ill for other some ; one medicine hea.1eth some, and maketh other sick ; one harness doth arm one, and cumbreth another; one coat is meet for one, and too strait for another.
And after other e~amples, at the last St. Augustine showeth the same to be true in the sacraments both of baptism and of the Lord's body, which, he saith, do profit only them that receive the same worthily.
And the words of St. Paul, which St. Augustine citeth, do speak of the sacramental bread and cup, and not of the body and blood. And yet St.
Augustine calleth the bread and the cup, the flesh and blood ; . not that they be so indeed, but that they so signify : as he saith in another place,
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
Contra Jfo,ximinum 1• " In sacraments," saith he, o HAP.
VII.
"is to be considered, not what they be, but what " they show ; for they be signs of other things,
"being one thing, and signifying another."
Therefore, as in baptism, those that come feignedly and those that come unfeignedly, both be washed with the sacramental water, but both be not washed with the Holy Ghost, and clothed with Christ ; so, in the Lord's Supper, both eat and drink the sacramental bread and wine, but both eat not Christ himself, and be fed with his flesh and blood, but those only which worthily receive the sacrament.
And this answer will serve to another placem of St. Augustine against the Donatists, where he saith, that "Judas received the body and blood of "the Lord."
For as St. Augustine in that place speaketh of the sacrament of baptism, so doth he speak of the sacrament of the body and blood, which nevertheless he called the body and blood, because they signify and represent unto us the very body, flesh, and blood.
And, as before is at length declared, a figure c H AP. hath the name of the thing that is signified . VIII. h b A , .
. ll d Figures be t ere y. s a mans image IS ca e a man, a called by I. , .
}" b" d' . b" d d thenames 10n s image a 10n, a Ir s image a 1r , an anor the 1 Contra Mat:i111inum, lib. iii. cap. 22. m De Baptism. contra Donat. lib. v. cap. 8.
DEFENCE, &c.
image of a tree and herb is called a tree or herb.
So were we wont to say, our lady of Walsingham, our lady of Ipswich, our lady of Grace, our lady of Pity, St. Peter of Milan, St. John of Amyas, and such like, not meaning the things themselves, but calling their images by the name of the things by them represented.
And likewise we were wont to say, Great St. Christopher of York or Lincoln ; our lady smileth, or rocketh her child ;
Jet us go in pilgrimage to St. Peter at Rome, and St. James in Compostella ; and a thousand like speeches, which were not understand of the very things, but only of the images of them.
BOOK IV. thin1,1s which they signify.
So doth St. John Chrysostome say, that we see Christ with our eyes, touch him, feel him, and grope him with our hands, fix our teeth in his flesh, taste it, break it, eat it, and digest it, make red our tongues and dye them with his blood, and swallow it, and drink it.
And in a Catechism by me translated, and set forth, I used like manner of speech, saying that with our bodily mout~s we receive the body and blood of Christ.
Which my saying, divers 0 ignorant persons (not used to read old ancient authors, nor acquainted with their phrase and manner of speech) did carp and reprehend, for lack of good understanding.
0 (Smythe probably was the person pointed at, (see Cranmer's Answer to his Preface;) but the remark may also be applied to Gardyner, who in his Explication repeatedly urged the inconsistency between the doctrines of the Catechism and of the Defeuce ,-and to Martyn, who brought forward a similar charge
THE EATING
AND DRINKING.
For this speech and other before rehearsed of c:lt Chrysostome, and all other like, be not understand --of the very flesh and blood of our Saviour Christ, which in very deed we neither feel nor see, but that which we do to the bread and wine, by a figurative speech is spoken to be done to the flesh and blood, because they be the very signs, figures, and tokens instituted of Christ, to represent unto us his very flesh and blood.
And yet as with our corporal eyes, corporal hands, and mouths, we do corporally see, feel, taste, and eat the bread and drink the wine, being the signs and sacraments of Christ's body, even so with our spiritual eyes, hands, and mouths, we do spiritually see, feel, taste, and eat his very flesh and drink his very blood.
As Eusebius Emissenus saithP, "When thou " comest to the reverend altar to be filled with "spiritual meats, with thy faith look upon the " body and blood of him that is thy God, honour
"him, touch him with thy mind, take him with "the hand of thy heart, and drink him with the "draught of thine inward man."
And these &piritual things require no corporal presence of Christ himself, who sitteth continually in heaven, at the right hand of his Father. upon his Examination of Cranmer at Oxford in 1555. See the Archbishop's justification in his Answers to Gardyner, and Smythe, and in his Examinati,m before Brokes.
This whole clause is omitted in the translation printed at Embden, m 1557 : probably because it was thought unnecessary to weary continental readers with English d1sputes.-Jenkyns,]
P Eusebius Emissenus, in Senn. de Eucharistia.
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK And as this is most true, so it is full and IV. sufficient to answer all things that the papists can bring in this matter, that hath any appearance for their party.
CHAP.
Now it is requisite to speak something of the IX. manner and form of worshipping of Christ, by The adora h h · · thi l h • h tion in the t em t at receive s sacrament; est t at m t e sacrament. stead of Christ himself be worshipped the sacrament.
For as his humanity, joined to his Divinity, and exalted to the right hand of his
Father, is to be worshipped of all creatures in heaven, earth, and under the earth : even so, if in the stead thereof we worship the signs and sacraments, we commit as great idolatry as ever was, or shall be to the world's endq.
Thesimple And yet have the very Antichrists, the subtlest a::
1:e~~ enemies that Christ hath, by their fine inventions and crafty schoJastical divinity, deluded many simple souls, and brought them to this horrible idolatry, to worship things visible and made with their own hands, persuading them that creatures were their Creator, their God, and their Maker.
For else what made the people to run from their seats to the altar, and from altar to altar, and from sacring, as they called it, to sacring,
<1 De adoratione lege Roffen, et CEcolamp. lib. iii. cap. 4, and 5. (1580.]
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
peeping, tooting, and gazing at that thing which c~.t,P. the priest held up in his hands, if they thought not to honour that thing which they saw? What moved the priests to lift up the sacrament so high over their heads? or the people to cry to the priest, ' Hold up, hold up ; ' and one man to say to another, 'Stoop down before;' or to say,
"This day have I seen my Maker;' and, 'I cannot 'be quiet except I see my Maker once a day? '
What was the cause of all these, and that as well the priest as the people so devoutly did knock and kneel at every sight of the sacrament, but that they worshipped that visible thing which they saw with their eyes, and took it for very
God?
For if they worshipped in spirit only Christ, sitting in heaven with his Father, what needed they to remove out of their seats to toot and gaze, as the Apostles did after Christ when he was gone up into heaven 1 If they worshipped nothing that they saw, why did they rise up to see1
Doubtless many of the simple people worshipped that thing which they saw with their eyes.
And although the subtle papists do colour and cloak the matter never so finely, saying, that they worship not the sacraments which they see with their eyes, but that thing which t~ey believe with their faith to be really and corporally in the sacraments, yet why do they then run from place to place to gaze at the things which they see, if they worship them not, giving thereby occasion to them that be ignorant, to worship that which
DEFENCE, &c.
BOOK they see 1 Why do they not rather quietly sit IV.
---still in their seats, and move 'the people to do thelike, worshipping God in heart and in spirit, than to gad about from place to place, to see that. thing which they confess themselves is not to beworshipped 1
And yet to eschew one inconvenience, that is to. say, the worshipping of the sacrament, they fall into another as evil, and worship nothing there at. all. For they worship that thing, as th~y say,. which is really and corporally and yet invisibly present under the kinds of bread and wine, which, as before is expressed and proved, is utterly nothing.
And so they give unto the ignorant occasion to worship bread and wine, and they themselves worship nothing there at all.
But the papists, for their own commodity, to. keep the people still in idolatry, do often allege a certain placer of St. Augustine upon the Psalms, where he saith, that " no man doth eat the flesh of "Christ, except he first worship it," and that " we do not off end in worshipping thereof, lmt we·
" should off end if we should not worship it."
That is true which St. Augustine saith in this. place. For who is he that professeth Christ, and is· spiritually fed and nourished with his flesh and blood, but he will honour and worship him,. sitting at the right hand of his Father, and render unto him, from the bottom of his heart, all laud,. praise, and thanks, for his merciful redemption 1 r August. In Psal. xcviii.
THE EATING AND
DRINKING.
And as this is most true which St. Augustine c HAP.
IX.
:saith, so is that most false which the papists would persuade 'upon St. Augustine's ,vords, that the sacramental bread and wine, or any visible thing, is to be worshipped in the sacrament.
For St. Augustine's mind was so far from any such thought, that he forbiddeth utterly to worship Christ's own flesh and blood alone, but in eonsideration, and as they be annexed and joined to his Divinity.
How much less then could he think or allow that we should worship the sacramental bread and wine, or any outward or visible sacrament, which be shadows, figures, and representations of Christ's very flesh and blood !
And St.
Augustine was afraid, lest in worshipping of Christ's very body we should offend ; and therefore he biddeth us, when we worship Christ, that we should not tarry and fix our minds upon his flesh, which of itself availeth nothing, but that we sqould lift up our minds from the flesh to the Spirit which giveth life : and yet the papists be not afraid, by crafty means, to induce us to worship those things which be signs and sacraments of Christ's body.
But what will not the shameless papists allege for their purpose, when they be not ashaP1ed to maintain the adoration of the sacrament by these words of St. Augustine, wherein he speaketh not one word of the adoration of the sacrament, but only of Christ himself?
And although he say, that Christ gave his
DEitENCE, &c.
BOOK 1lesh to be eaten of us, yet he meant not that his.
IV. flesh is here corporally present and corporally eaten, but onty spiritually.
As his words declareplainly which follow in the same place, whereSt. August~ne, as it were in the person of Christ,. speaketh these words : " It is the Spirit that " giveth life, but the flesh profiteth nothing. The " words which I have spoken unto you, be spirit
" and life. That which I have spoken, understanil "you spiritually.
You shall not eat this ~ody "which you see, and drink that blood which they "shall shed that shall crucify me. I have com- " mended unto you a sacrament, understand it
" spiritually, and it shall give you life. And "although it must be visibly ministered, yet it
"must be invisibly understand."
These words of St. Augustine, with the other before recited, do express his mind plainly, that Christ is not otherwise to be eaten than spiritually, which spiritual eating requireth no corporal presence ; and that he intended not to teach here any adoration either of the visible sacraments, or of any thing that is corporally in them. For indeed there is nothing really and corporally in the bread to be worshipped, although the papists say, that Christ is in every consecrated bread.
But our Saviour Christ himself hath given us warning beforehand, that such false Christians and false teachers should come, and hath bid us
Ma~x1:iv.to beware of them, saying, If any man tell you Mar ltlii.
C • · Ch"
· bli Luke xvii. that hrist 1s here, or r1st 1s there, e eve him
THE EATING AND DRINKING.
not; for there shall arise false Christs and false CHAP.
IX. prophets, and shall show many signs and wonders, so that if it were possible the very elect should be brought into error.
Take heed, I have told you beforehand.
Thus our Saviour Christ, like a most loving Pastor and Saviour of our souls, hath given us warning beforehand of the perils and dangers that were to come, and to be wise and ware, that we should not give credit unto such teachers as would persuade us to worship a piece of bread, to kneel to it, to knock to it, to creep to it, to follow it in procession, to lift up our hands to it, to offer to it, to light candles to it, to shut it up in a chest or box, to do all other honour unto it, more than we do unto God; having alway this pretence or excuse for our idolatry, 'Behold here is Christ.'
But our Saviour Christ calleth them false prophets. and saith, Take heed, I tell you before, believe themMatt.xxiv. not: if they say to you, Behold, "Christ is abroad, or in the wilderness, go not out; and if they say that he is kept in close places, believe them not.
And if you will ask me the question, who be CHlP. those false prophets and seducers of the people, They be h , d th R , h A . h . the papists t e answer 1s soon ma e : e om1s nhc r1stSthat have and their adherents, the authors of all error, t:~e~!~~le.
2ao
DEFENCE, &c.
nooK ignorance, blindness, superstition, hypocrisy, and IV.
---idolatry.
For Innocentius the Third, ono of the most wicked men that ever was in the see of Rome, did ordain and decree that the host should be diligently kept under lock and key.
Jnnocentius Tertiua.
And Honorius the Third not only confirmed the same, but commanded also that the priests should diligently teach the people from time to time, that when they lifted up the bread called the Host, the people should then reverently bow down, and that likewise they should do, when the Honoriua 'l"ertiua priest carrieth the Host unto sick folks. These be the statutes and ordinances of Rome, under pretence of holiness, to lead the people unto all error and idolatry ; not bringing them by bread unto Christ, but from Christ unto bread. o HAP.
But all that love and believe Christ himself, let XI.
A h t them not think that Christ is corporally in the nex or. ahtion to bread, but let them lift up their hearts unto heaven, t e true honouring and worship him sitting there at the right hand of Christ , in the of his Father:
Let them worship him in them- ,eacrament. selves, whose temples they be, in whom he d welleth and liveth spiritually : but in no wise let them worship him as being corporally in the bread ; for he is not in it, neither spiritually, as he is in man; nor corporally, as he is in heaven;
THE EA TING AND DRINKING.
but only sacrarnentally, as a thing may be said to CHAP. be in the fig'Ure, whereby it is signified.
XI.
Thus is sufficiently reproved the third principal error of the papists, concerning the Lord's Supper, which is, that wicked members of the Devil do eat Christ's very body, and drink his blood.
THUS ENDETH THE FOURTH BOOK.
( 232 ) :l'he Fifth Book is of the Oblation and Sacrifice of our Saviour Christ.
"OHAP.
The greatest blasphemy and injury that can be I.
. against Christ, and yet universally used through The aacnh . h k' d . h' h h . k fice of the t e popis mg om, IS t IS, t at t e priests ma e maaa. their mass a sacrifice propitiatory, to remit the sins as well of themselves as of other, both quick and dead, to whom they list· to apply the same.
Thus, under pretence of holiness, the papistical priests have taken upon them to be Christ's successors, and to make such an oblation and sacrifice as never creature made but Christ alone, neither he made the same any more times than once, and that was by his death upon the cross.
CHAP.
For as St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews IL witnesseth, Although the high priests of the old r:ereuce law offered many times, at the least every year between rn · ,Ir. h h · lJ • thesacrionce, yet vnrist O,ueret not imse many times, ~:~!. for then he should many times have died : but now
;~!a~ !}e he offereth himself but once, to take away sin by f!';.
01d that offering of himself. And as men must die once, so was Christ offered once, to take away the sins of many.
And furthermore St. Paul saith, that the Heb. ix.