Saint Ambrose saide to the water of baptisme O water which washest the worlde by the bloude of Christ which hast merited that is to say hast beene made worthie to bee a Sacrament of Christ c. shall hee be thought to haue adored shall he be iudged to haue transubstantiated it into Christ And when their pretended Amphilochius crieth O worshipfull and reuerende conception meaning of the virgine make vs inheritors of eternall life preserue thy people and thine heritage c. shall hee haue crowned this conception with the Godhead And when themselues say to the oyle Aue sanctum oleum sanctam Chrisma I salute thee O holy oyle or holy vnction To the Crosse Aue Rex noster due spes vnica I salute and pray God blesse thee O our King our onelie hope shall they bee thought to haue really transubstantiated him Nay rather let them acknowledge that this place concludeth nothing Epiphan in Anchor let them remember that Epiphanius did heretofore name this mysterie vnto vs An insensible thing that Pachymeres compareth it to Nazianzene his Passeouer And therefore that this manner of speech is an Apostrophe a Rhetoricall figure that in other points they do not agree amongst themselues as whether the body of Christ be there dead or aliue hauing a soule or not hauing a soule sensible or insensible c. And therefore that they are first to agree themselues before they go about to fortifie themselues from this place Origen When saith hee thou eatest and drinkest the bodie and bloud of our Lorde Orig. in diuers euang loc hom 5. the Lorde entereth in and commeth vnder thy roofe and therefore humble thy selfe with the Centurion c. Hee meaneth then that the Sacrament is adored and then he meaneth also that wee adore the Saintes that is to say vertuous people when they come to see vs. For hee teacheth in the same place two waies by which Christ entreth into the faithfull the one when the Minister of the Church visiteth them the other when they receiue the incorruptible meat of the Sacrament And this is that which he saith elsewhere That God is in vs by the preaching of the Apostles and by the Sacrament of his bloud Idem Lom â— And that this visitation is wrought in vs by the word and spirit he declareth and maketh plaine there also Speake onely the word saith he come onely with thy word Thy word is a looking glasse it is a perfect worke shew forth in this thy bodily absence the power of thy spirit c. If then according to Origen wee ought to adore the Sacraments and ministers then with as good right such men as are godly and vertuous but if these then it must be onely with a ciuill worship and adoration and so must that wherewith wee worship the other And if the adoration due to God alone being giuen to good men maketh idolatrie then also if it be giuen to Sacraments or ministeres or els this place concludeth nothing Chrysostome The wise men worshipped this bodie in the manger Chrysost in 1. Cor. 10. they worshipped it with feare and trembling Let vs at the least follow these barbarous and rude men wee which are citizens of heauen He speaketh of the bodie of Christ represented in the Sacrament and exhorteth the people to come thereunto with reuerence But the wise men verily did not worship him as God but as a king And therefore this is but to returne to that which Saint Clement sayeth Clem. l. 2. constit Draw neere vnto this Sacrament with the same reuerence that you would doe vnto a King that is to say vnto some honorable person He addeth Thou seest him not in the armes of a woman but thou seest the Minister present the spirite aboundantly shedde vppon this sacrifice The Priest verily with the eyes of the bodie but the spirite with the eyes of the spirite For was it not more readie otherwise if hee had had any such purpose to say as following the opposition Not in the armes of a woman but in the handes of a Priest Not the spirite shedde vppon the thinges set before them that is to say vppon the Sacraments But Christ sacrificed himselfe But the coherence and scope of the matter doth carrie vs to conceiue That Chrysostome laboured to raise the heartes of those that were present from base and lowe thinges vnto high and heauenly thinges when hee saith vnto them That there are not anie but Eagles that approach and come neere vnto this bodie Those saith hee that haue nothing to doe with the earth that haue the eyes of the vnderstanding sharpe clearely seeing and bent vpon the Sunne of righteousnesse Hee transporteth and conueigheth them as much as in him lyeth aboue the heauens when hee sayeth vnto them also Wee must with the wise men worship this bodie This bodie verilie which is no more on earth but on high at the right hand of God And then verilie after all these Hyperboles in spirite and not in bodie that is saith hee In as much as this mysterie causeth that the earth is a heauen vnto thee that the gates of heauen are open vnto thee that thou hast accesse and entrance thereinto c. And afterward how Verily In purging thy soule in preparing thy spirite to receiue these mysteries to see touch and eate this bodie After the same manner verilie that Saint Ierome saide of Paula Thou hast offered by faith the same offeringes that the wise men did offer thou hast worshipped with them God in the cribbe Chrysost in Lithurg c. But say they hee prayeth vnto him in his Liturgie I meane that which is attributed vnto him as Christ truely and not the Sacrament Heare saith hee O Lorde from the seate of the glorie of thy kingdome which art set with the father who aidest succourest and relieuest vs here below inuisiblie c. O Lord haue pittie vppon mee poore sinner c. Here I appeale to their owne consciences whether hee frame this his prayer vnto God or the Sacrament Is this to draw vs to gaze and looke vpon the Altar or to raise vs vp vnto the heauens of heauens Saint Ambrose Ambr. de spirit sanct l. 3. c. 12. Psal 95. 98. Worship his footstoole that is the flesh of Christ saith he which we worship in the mysteries which the Apostles worshipped in Iesus c. And Saint Augustine in like manner No man eateth this flesh except hee haue first worshipped it Who doubteth that wee ought to worshippe the flesh of Christ Christ inseparablie God and man Who doubteth likewise that no man can eate this flesh if hee haue not first worshipped it worshipped it by a true faith worshipped it with heart and affection c. But wee worshippe it after the same manner that wee eate it Wee eate it as wee take it and wee take it as wee touch it In truth but in spirite in spirite but in truth And God forbid that
that the former word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was vsed and gaue it to them from hand to hand saying Drinke ye all This cuppe which the Iewes call Chos halel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cup of blessing the cup of prayse or thankesgiuing which they did blesse in these words Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of eternitie c. which hast created and made the fruit of the vine c. And in distributing it they did sing one of the Psalmes of Dauid which beginneth Halle-lu-iah Praise ye the Lord. But to the end that from thenceforth it might continue the Sacrament of the new Testament our Lord addeth thereunto these wordes For this is my blood the blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And according to the Apostle to the end that it might be henceforth a perpetuall institution and ordinance in the Church of Christ And euermore and as oft as you shall eate of this bread and drinke of this cuppe you shall declare and shew forth the Lords death vntill his comming In the end it is said that our Lord and his Apostles did sing a Psalme and afterward went vp into the mountaine of Oliues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Munster vppon S. Marke Paulus Fagius vpon Deut. c. 8. Scaliger de Emendat temp lib. 6. Cassander in his Liturgies The Psalme I say which was wont to bee sung of the Iewes in the closing and shutting vp of this solemne feast of vnleauened bread after Supper and is recorded in their bookes of rytes to be the 114. Psalme when Israel came out of Egypt But Burgensis is of opinion that it was a Psalme composed of many Psalmes that is to say of all the Psalmes from the 113. vnto the 119. which thing is more at large to bee seene in Munster Fagius others but yet better in the Lord of Escalles his booke of the reformation of time for it goeth farre beyond all the rest in the clearing of this matter And now we haue to consider what it is that the Masse hath common and what it hath like with this holy Supper at this day this holy Supper I say wherein wee see that our Lord the Lord of the Sabbath the Lord of all the ceremonies the Lord of the law it selfe did not disdaine exactly to obserue all the circumstances of the celebrating of the same as they are ordained in the law as namely the day the houre and the manner and forme there prescribed referring the same to his true and proper vse onely and to the onely end it respected which was himselfe pointed out prefigured in the same Whereas they of the Church of Rome men sinners as all the kind of man is haue not beene ashamed to dispense with the institution of this holy Sacrament and to cut and clip it change and alter it after all after their owne best liking fashion Our Lord distributed the bread and the cup vnto his Apostles the maister of the houshold vnto his children where is there any one step or marke of this communion of this communicating in the Masse It is his will and pleasure that this holy Sacrament should be a remembrance of his death and passion vntill he come that we should comfort and strengthen our selues in this faith combine and knit our selues in mutuall loue and charity waiting for the participation of his glory that so wee might make vp perfect his body in the heauens Where is this remembrance in the Masse where euerie thing is vttered in an vnknowne language where all is done by signes whisperings mumbled vp not vnderstood the expositions whereupon are so ridiculous fantastical ful of controuersies amongst their Doctors And furthermore who euer hauing seene the celebration of the holy Supper in the first ages could once dreame of finding the same in the Masse Or who is he who giuing good and attentiue eare vnto the true institution of the Lordes Supper read as it is set downe by the Euangelists that can proue himselfe so quicke sighted as soundly from the same to gather the doctrine of the Masse But say they th'Apostles haue not set downe euerie thing there are many more ceremonies belonging thereunto Of the place Other things when I come c. 1. Cor. 11. for S. Paule himselfe saith Caetera cum venero disponam other thinges I will set in order when I come But doe they not make any conscience to comprise vnder one Et caetera the doctrine either of the sacrifice or of transubstantiation the whole force and marrow of their Masse Is it credible that S. Paul would vse such delaies in things so important and so necessary as wherein according to their owne saying resteth their saluation as without which the same cannot stand Neyther are they yet ashamed to set before vs the foundation of the Masse so huge and massie a building vpon a meere gesse supposall that hath no ground or foundation at all to rest it selfe vpon Ambros in 1. Cor. c. 11. Nay then let vs heare what the fathers say S. Ambrose He teacheth vs that we must first handle for order sake the head principall thinges concerning our saluation as wherein one cannot erre without committing of some grieuous offence Caetera but as concerning other thinges which are for the edification of the Church he passeth them ouer till his comming Chrisostome vpon this place S. Chrisost vpon the 1. Cor. c. 11. hom 28. Theod. vpon the 1. Cor. c. 11. Oecum in 1. Cor. c. 11. Gloss ordin vpon the 1. Cor. c. 11. Thomas 3. parte sum q. 64 art 2. in 1. ad Cor. where he speaketh saith he of the same thing or of some other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not verie vrgent or necessarie thereby to make them carefull to reforme their faults when they shall thinke of his comming Theodoret He could not set in order all things but hauing written of the most necessarie he reserueth the lesse necessarie till he come in person Oecumenius Either hee speaketh of the same thing as if the holy supper of our Lord had neede amongst the Corinthians to bee reformed in other pointes or else hee speaketh of some other thing which hath neede of his owne presence The ordinarie Glosse Of the same but by your selues you cannot wade any further therein Saint Thomas He speaketh vpon some slight and familiar traditions he speaketh of thinges containing no matter of waight that is to say indifferent thinges And in another place But as concerning thinges which are necessarie in the Sacrament Christ himselfe hath appointed them In like manner Caietanus Caetera inquit praenarrata that is to say the things before spoken of as that one came drunken an other hungrie that there were contentions amongst them these are the other thinges which he promiseth to redresse at his comming If then these other thinges whereof Saint Paule would speake bee not the
storie is That Iudas to incourage his soldiers being vppon the point of entering into a great fight acquainted them with this vision that had appeared vnto him But either it was a reall action or a likenesse and representation onely If it were reall and in deed where is then their Limbes become For they all agree that in the Limbes they can make no intercession neither be inuocated If representatiue or figuratiue then let them heare the exposition of their owne Doctors Gloss in 2. Machab. c. 15. That in Onias is represented the order of the priesthood and in Ieremias the Propheticall order and in the one and the other Iesus Christ the high priest and Prophet of whom Moyses hath said I will raise vp vnto you a Prophet like vnto mee of whom S. Iohn likewise saith If we haue sinned we haue an aduocate with God Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes Baruch Baruch 3.14 3. It is said Lord heare now the prayer of the dead of Israel and of their children which haue sinned before thee Now it is to be known whether this word dead be taken for such as were dead in deed or else for a people brought vnto such an extremity as did threaten death vnto them euery moment Now the verse going before seemeth to make for the latter For it saith we perish are destroied for euer But let vs take it according to their own sence Lyranus giueth them the repulse ouerthrow He speaketh saith he of the praiers which the Patriarkes the Prophets had made whiles they liued for the good estate of their posteritie And their opinion also of the Limbes doth debarre them of the benefit of the place in their owne sence But what agreement hath this praier and intercession of the liuing Saints with that of the dead Those being commanded with promise to be heard these not mentioned in the Scripture but subiect vnto that great Woe so oftentimes repeated Woe to them which adde therunto Saint Paul prayeth for them that were in the same Shippe he praieth also the Romaines to pray for him But did he allow them to call vpon or to pray for aide vnto him or did hee himselfe inuocate the Romaines And therefore if we from these mutuall praiers of the faithfull that are liuing rise vp to the inuocation of the Saints that are dead what shall let vs then but that from the inuocation of the dead wee shall descend by consequent to the inuocating and adoring of those that be aliue to make vowes and offer vp our oblations vnto them to erect and build Churches and Altars in honour of them to burne sacrifices and incense vnto them and finally to reuiue the whole Masse of Paganisme for them which are as yet vppon earth as wee haue alreadie done for them which are in heauen And thus much for that which they can say as well for the inuocation as for the intercession of the olde Testament CHAP. XII That the inuocation of Saints hath not any foundation in the holy Scriptures of the new Testament IN the new Testament they alleadge that S. Paul ordained 1. Tim. 2. Rom. 15. Collos 4. that intercession shuld be made in the Church for all men that he praieth the Romaines and Colossians to pray for him that he hoped to be offered in the praiers of the Saints that S. Iames saith Pray yee one for an other to the ende that yee may bee saued c. What are all these places but the praiers of the Saints liuing and not of the Saints deceased whereupon there is not any thing further to bee inferred then what concerneth the dutie of charitie amongst the liuing and from which there wil not any old writer be found to gather the inuocating of Saints which are in heauen But we see that the rich man in the other life Luk. 16. praieth Abraham that his punishment may be mitigated and why not as wel here below What maner of argument is this concluding that what is done in Hel may be done here on earth And that what the damned doe the same also may the faithfull doe And what Diuinitie is this borrowed from the damned from the damned feeling in themselues the vnappeasible wrath and anger of God as not being able to comprehend him otherwise then as an angrie iudge for vs which haue accesse vnto his throne by Christ which is both the Porter and the gate which are led vnto the throne of his grace by the hand of his Sonne And what wilfull blindnesse is it to oppose vnto the cleare light of the Scriptures outward darknesse to the intercession of our Lord full of power and efficacie a parabolicall praier of a wicked rich man repelled and cast off by Abraham for the impertinencie thereof And no lesse impertinent and farre from the purpose are those places elsewhere Math. 27.47 as that of the crie of our Lord vpon the Crosse Eli Eli my God my God c. The souldiers had thought that he had called for Elias Let vs see say they if he will come This was then say they a familiar thing to call vpon the Saints But I should bee ashamed to confute it if they had any shame to alleadge it For what is this To learne the faith of the Church of Pilats souldiers the faith of Israel at the hands of the Gentils which are in garrison in Ierusalem which haue heard speech amongst the Iewes of one Elias that should come at that time which were trained vp in Paganisme to praie vnto as many Gods as they could dreame of or deuise to hold for Gods all those from whom they expected any good or feared any euill Which by reason of the ignorance of the tongue did suppose that our Lord called for Elias S. Ierome vpon this place I thinke that they were the Romane Souldiers who vnderstood not the propertie of the Hebrew tongue and thereupon did thinke that he had inuocated or called Elias But if we vnderstand and take them to haue beene Iewes then it was nothing but their ordinarie practise to speake reprochfully of the Lord accusing him of weaknesse and infirmitie and therby driuen to pray vnto Elias And the Glose and Caietanus haue vnderstoode it of the Romaines and of the Gentiles In S. Iohn 5. Thanke not saith our Lord vnto the Pharisies that I am to accuse you vnto my father Iohn 5.45 Moyses in whom you haue your hope he it is that will accuse you Thereupon they conclude that it was a doctrine amongst the Iewes that Moyses tooke the matter vppon him before God whether it were to accuse or defend them And still they forget that this dutie could not be exercised in the Limbes Wheras the text is plaine enough to those that haue any eyes Moyses that is to say the lawe and doctrine of Moses doth accuse vs is the sentence of condemnation against vs when we infringe and breake it when
we are onely made acquainted with so much as Saint Ierome maketh mention of It is manifest likewise that the Church of Fraunce did not allow of this superstition in as much as that French Bishoppe of whome Saint Ierome speaketh vnto Ripacius a holy and reuerent man did hold the opinion of Vigilantius according to that which Ireneus saith That the French men and Germaines held and kept so fast what they had first receiued of the Apostolike faith as that they shutte their eares vnto whatsoeuer departed and swarued from the same Vigilantius saith by the report of Saint Ierome That wee must not worship or adore the Martyrs nor the deceased Saintes And who can denie that which hee saith of worship and adoration But for the honour due and of right to bee giuen in the remembring of the Martyrs and Saintes by the acknowledging of the giftes of God in them and the imitation of their constancie who is hee that would contend or striue against it But you say that in this honour inuocation is included which thing Vigilantius denyed Let them shew vs then in all this disputation how hot soeuer S. Ierome be any one word of the inuocation of saints or of Martyrs or any one proofe or allegation that he maketh for the same either out of the scriptures or the fathers the Councels or the Liturgies Greeke or Latine Howsoeuer notwithstanding the case so standeth as that he could not bee ignorant of that goodly Masse of S. Iames at Ierusalem if so be it were at that time for to haue proued thereby the intercession of the virgine Marie and of the Saintes For as concerning that which he saith If any man come to pray ad memorias Martyrum it is well knowne that that was for no other thing but to point the place where had beene accustomed for a long time the meetinges of the Christian assemblies to stirre vp thereby those which were present to the like constancie Origen was the first that said though doubtfully and ambiguously That the blessed soules do pray in the other world for the Church Vpon this stone men haue laboured by degrees to found and settle this inuocation Vigilantius doth take occasion by this foundation and denieth it adding that here we ought to pray one for another that there is not any place for this action elswhere S. Ierome striueth for this proposition of Origens as for an article of faith Vigilant gainsaith it as contrary vnto faith but of them passing beyond their bounds seeing that this proposition if a man stay there and go no further is indifferently to be borne with of the Church But S. Ierome gathereth therevpon this conclusion The Saintes pray vnto God in heauen for the Church therefore the Church here vppon earth must not onely pray vnto God but vnto the Saints also Superstition said But wherefore shal we not pray vnto them seeing that they pray for vs For is there not appearance that they ioyne their praiers vnto ours when we pray vnto them at their graues c. Vigilantius aunswereth No for they doe not meddle any more with humane affaires So far is it off that their soules should keepe about these graues Apocal. 14. S. Ierome thereupon cryeth out Wilt thou chaine vp the Apostles wilt thon make a law for God to keepe Do they not follow the lambe wheresoeuer he goeth c. But the question is not here of the power of God but of the nature which he hath giuen for a law to all thinges Tertullian had said vnto him That it was no good diuinitie Chrysost hom 20. in Mat. Idem de Lazat Diuite August de cu ra pro mort â—erend Idem de G. Virg c. 27. Hieronym in Epitaph Nepotian To reason from the power of God to his will or to the effect And S. Chrysosostome That the soules seperated from the bodies haue not their abode in these regions That the soules of the iust are in the hand of God And S. Augustine had proued it vnto him by scripture That they are not any more dealers in the thinges of this world That in the same place To follow the Lambe is to follow the footsteps of Christ Not saith he in respect that he is the Sonne of God by whom all things were made but the sonne of man who hath shewed vs in himselfe what we ought to doe But S. Ierome doth he say the same vnto vs that they of the Church of Rome say That they know all thinges in the seeing of God Then they reade in God that which is in our hearts in our thoughtes c. No but cleane contrarie In the Epitaph of Nepotian All whatsoeuer I can say to him seemeth to mee to be no more then a dumbe shew because that he heareth not Againe Let vs not wearie our selues with speaking to him with whom we cannot speake any more But he ceaseth not to vse his Rhetoricall figures his Apostrophes as the others do in the Epitaph of Paula whom he had so entirely loued and in his speech of the death of Blessilla wherein hee speaketh vnto them and causeth them to make answere the dead and deceased daughter to comfort her mournefull and sorrowing mother c. But in his Commentaries his choller and languishing mind is laid aside Idem in Ezech. l. 4. c. 14. tom 5 If we be to put our confidence in any let vs trust in the one only God For cursed is the man that putteth his confidence in man though they were Saintes yea and though they were Prophets We must not trust in Principibus ecclesiarum in those which are the chiefe and principall of the Churches who how vpright and righteous soeuer they be shall not deliuer any but their owne soules not so much as the soules of their owne children And to the end wee may not conceiue him to haue spoken of any but such as were liuing writing vpon the Epistle to the Galathians vpon these words Euerte man shal beare his owne burthen Idem in ep ad Galat. l. 2. c. 6. see what he saith vnto vs Wee learne though somewhat darklie by this little sentence a new doctrine which is hid and secrete that so long as wee are in this present world we may be helped by the praiers and counsels one of another but when as we shall be come before the iudgement seat of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noe can pray for any man but euerie one shall beare his owne burthen c. Which may seeme to bee a retractation of that which he had stifly maintained against Vigilantius For out of this text are gathered two propositions together Gra. Câ—in praesenti 13. q. 2. Hieronym de Assumpt Mariae virg tom 4 that is That the prayers of the liuing serue not to any vse for the dead neither the praiers of the dead for the liuing and this place is inserted into the Decree Of the virgine Mary likewise hee sayeth Thou hast
thing was said to be done And here it is not to be forgotten that Bonauenture saith that when he was dead these scarres and printes were seene and acknowledged by many in so much as that some of them put nailes into them And Mathias Paris on the contrary a Monke that liued at the time of his death of a longer standing and more auncient by fortie yeares then Bonauenture writeth in his Chronicle that there was not any manner of print to be seene after his death And yet the man was not to bee suspected for the matter Dominick for he speaketh as superstitiously as any of the rest And haue they said any lesse of Dominick Nay rather it belonged to them to incroach dayly enter deeper into blasphemy And so much the more because of the emulation raised betwixt these two orders because that Dominick who was the formost in time seemed to come last in reputation account Anton. Archicp in tit 23. c. 11. the Archb. Antonine therefore that was of this order peiseth his miracles not against those of S. Frauncis but against the miracles of our Lord giueth them the start prerogatiue both for number for greatnes Christ saith he raised but three from death at all Dominick at Rome onely raised as many and 40. neere to Tholosa which were drowned on horsebacke in the riuer Garona besides infinite others Christ after his resurrection went in to his disciples the dores being shut Dominick whilet yet he bare about this mortall bodie which is much more went into the temple the dores being fast Now by the way let vs note that this was by their owne speech either by the proprietie of a spirituall and glorified bodie or els by an Almightie power And thus he goeth through all the miracles of our Lord alwaies preferring and giuing S. Dominick the vpper hand To be short Christ said after his death All power is giuen to me in heauen and in earth and verily saith he this power was not in a small measure communicated bestowed vpon Dominicke ouer all things in heauen earth or hell and that euen in this life for he had Angels to attend vpō and serue him the elements obaied him and the deuils trembled vnder him And this he laieth downe in many examples He addeth further that at Rome there were two images the one of S. Paul and the other of S. Dominick that at the feet of the former was written Per istum itur ad Christum by this men go to Christ and at the feet of the latter Facilius itur per istum but more easily and readily by this man that is to say by Dominicke That is saith Antonine Because that the doctrine of Paul and the Apostles induced and persuaded men to belieue but Dominicks to obserue and keep the councels Which is a shorter course and cut And thus you may already see that he was more then S. Paul and all the Apostles But what shall we say now of that which followeth Quia saith he Domino nostro similis est Dominicus aptissimé denominatus est verie fitlie and rightly was he called Dominicke because he was like Domino to our Lord. And he was possessiuelie in possession that which our Lord was authoritatiuely in authoritie for the Lord said I am the light of the world and the Church singeth of Dominick you are the light of the world The Prophets beare witnesse Domino vnto the Lord and to Dominicke also Zacharie 11. I haue chosen me two roddes the one I haue called Decorem beautie that is to say the order of Saint Dominicke the other Funiculum a corde or band that is the order of the Gray friers thus they abuse the scripture Dominus that is to say our Lord was borne on the bare earth but the virgine for feare of cold laid him in a manger Dominicus from his swathing clothes abhorring the pamperinges and tender delightes of the worlde was found oftentimes by his nurse lying all naked vpon the bare earth For our Lord there appeared a starre in beauen in token that he did lighten the whole world In the forehead likewise of Dominicke as he was baptised the Godmother espied a star signifying a new light to be borne into the world c. The praier of our Lord was euer more heard when he would for in the garden that which he asked of a fleshlie desire hee would not obtaine according to reason But Dominick neuer demanded any thing of God which he did not whollie enioy according to his owne desire Dominus that is our Lord loued vs and washed vs from our sinnes in his blood Dominicke through a perfection of charitie tooke euerie daie three disciplines or corrections from his owne hand not with a corde but with an iron chaine euen to the causing of his blood to runne downe One for his faults though they were verie small another for those that were in Purgatorie and the third for them that liued here in the world c. And thus this Archbishop Antonine draweth this comparison through all the parts of the life of our Lord. In a word our Lord being to depart out of this world promiseth the Comforter vnto his disciples And Dominick saith vnto his Be not grieued for I wil do you more good in the place whither I go then I haue done here for there you haue me a better aduocate then any other that you can haue there c. And what shall now become of that which S. Iohn saith vnto vs If we haue sinned we haue an aduocate euen Iesus the righteous c. And notwithstanding these blasphemies are authorized by the Church of Rome for the good establishment that they haue procured vnto the Popes their authoritie for Gregorie the ninth canonized Dominicke in the yeare 1223. ordained a festiual day to be kept vnto him authorized also his rule and order and bestowed priuiledges vppon the same Now hee that writ these thinges was an Archbishop of Plorence high accounted of amongst our aduersaries Albert. Krant in hist Saxon. l. 9. c. 7. Abb. Trithem in Chronic. Hirsaughtiens But in the meane time they are warie enough not to tell vs any thing amongst the rest of their miracles of that which Krantzius reporteth vnto vs That one Bernard a Iacobine Confessor and Chaplen to the Emperour Henrie the 7. did poison him in the host Whereupon saith Trithemius the Abbot Pope Clement the fift inioyned them for a marke of reproch and ignominie that the Priests of their order from thence forward should neuer receiue or deliuer the communion but with the left hand An example for the Popes of these times to ordaine by the same reason that they should as yet be restrained from the vse of their right hand in detestation of the murther committed by frier Clement a Iacobine vpon the person of K. Henry the third In a word to come to our purpose Bullae fraternitatum ordinis
the fruit and effect but by the promise If we receiue not the same thing that the Apostles receiued after the same maner to what end then shold these words of the Lord Doe this c. as also those of the Apostle I haue receiued of the Lord that which I haue giuen vnto you serue And what other places are there whence we ought to learne take knowledge of the same But if it be the very same thing performed in the same maner then let vs cal to mind that it is a spiritual thing not a carnall and to be done after a spiritual not a carnal sort by faith and not by the mouth for he speaketh to them of a body broken for theÌ„ which yet was not broken and of bloud shed for them August in Psa 33. De Consecr d. 2. C. hoc est vbi Glosa which was as yet in his veines and therfore they did eate drink as the Patriarks and Prophets had done before theÌ„ spiritualy by faith And this is it which S. August saith That â—e sus Christ giuing the Sacraments of his body bloud vnto his Disciples did carie quodammodo after a certaine maner himselfe If he had done it really the quodammodo had serued to no vse for quodammodo say the Schooles is terminus diminuens a word of restraint denying the truth of the reall presence August Ep. 23 ad Bonifac. And then if this be quodammodo it is that which he saith in another place secundum quendam modum that is saith he By the similitude that the signes haue with the things not in very deede saith the canon but in signification not verily truely saith the Glose but improperly that is to say sacramentally And indeede that which he saith in one place He caried himselfe after a certaine manner in his handes hee speaketh thus in another place Idem de verb. Dom. in Euang Mat. Serm. 33. Hug. Cardin. in Mat. c. 26. in Marc. c. 14. He caried the bread in his handes in as much as he exhihibited and offered himselfe vnder these Sacraments for a spirituall meate and drinke vnto his disciples c. And the Glose expounding the wordes of the Supper saith Accipite comedite Take eate Intelligite fide comedite vnderstand eate by faith c. Cardinal Hugo likewise Take that is to say belieue with your harts and confesse with your mouthes c. In the mean time they goe about to graunt vs a larger priuilege then euer the Apostles had as though wee should receiue the body of Christ glorified and immortall whereas they receiued it as it was subiect to the death and passion But wee verily content our selues to receiue it as the Apostles did not aspiring after any more high and excellent manner that is therein to receiue the body broken and the bloud shed for vs for the Sonne of God properly doth quicken vs in that he is eternall but in that he hath made himselfe mortall neither doth he glorifie vs in that he himselfe is glorious but in that he hath abased himselfe taking vppon him the forme of a seruant and being made subiect vnto the ignominious death of the Crosse Therein I say to receiue it after the same maner the bread for a signe and certaine pledge of his body and yet notwithstanding at the very same instant also to receiue his body the wine a signe and infallible token of his bloude and notwithstanding at the very same instant to receiue his bloud by the inward efficacie of the holy Ghost and both the one and the other for the remission of sins and vnto the resurrection to life seeing that Christ is dead for our sinnes and risen againe for our iustification c. And in verie deed the auncient Fathers haue not otherwise vnderstood the holy supper of Christ with his Apostles Tertul aduer Marc. l. 5. c. 40. l. 1. c 14. Ambr. de iis qui myster init c 9. de Sacr. l. 4 c. 5. Hieronym l. 2. aduers Iouini an in Mat. c. 26. August contr Adaman c. 12 Idem in Prolog super ps 3. Macar hom 27 Theodor. in Polymorph seu Euarist Dial. 1. Tertullian He made the bread which he tooke and gaue to his disciples his body that is to say the figure of his bodie And in another place The bread by which he represented his body S. Ambrose The Lord himselfe crieth This is my body Before the blessing of heauenly words an other kind is named after the consecration the body of Christ is signified And in an other place more clearely The same which is saith hee the figure of the body and bloud of our Lord. S. Ierome He offered not water but wine for the figure of his bloud And in another place speaking of bread and wine Representing saith he the truth of his body and of his bloud S. Augustine The Lord doubted not to say This is my body when he gaue the signe of his body Againe He hath recommended and giuen to his Disciples the figure of his bloud Antitypes saith S. Macaire an Aegyptian Exhibiting the flesh and bloud of Christ Theodoret He that hath called his naturall body wheat and bread and which hath named himself a vine hath honoured the markes and signes which are to be seene with the name of his body and bloud not in changing the nature it self but in adding grace vnto nature Eusebius Emissenus Seing that our Lord must carrie vp into heauen the body which he had taken vpon him it was needfull that in the day of the supper he should consecrate for vs the Sacrament of his body and bloud to the end that that which was once offered vp for a ransom might continually be honored by misterie And here we must shun the confounding of these two words Truly carnally or really the one with the other being such as the old writers accompted of as much differing Cyril l. 3. c 24. in Ioh. Orig. in Gen. hom 1. c. 1. Hieronym ad Gal. c. 4. and carefully to be distinguished For Iesus Christ calleth himselfe the true Vine And Cyrill calleth him the true Manna And Origen the Apostles The true very heauens And S. Ierome the faithfull one true bread Whome it had beene verie hard to haue made to belieue that Christ had beene really the Vine or the Manna the Apostles the heauens or the faithful one loafe c. And thus you see what manner of holy supper it was that was celebrated kept of the Apostles and I verily belieue that there is not any true Christian that wisheth or desireth any other Fiftly Transubstantiation destroy eth the humaine nature of Christ Heb. 2 it destroyeth the humane nature of Christ for the truth whereof all the old Church hath so mightily striuen against the heretickes of that time and in the truth whereof likewise resteth the consolation of mankind the onely meanes of our saluation In as
much saith the Apostle as That he hath not taken vpon him the Angels that is to say the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham that is to say the nature of man taking part with flesh and bloud c. to destroy the kingdom of death by his death c. For in presupposing without the word of God that this body may be in a thousand places at once they conclude against the word of God that this body hath not that which is of the very nature of a body against that which our Lord said after his resurrection reprouing the vnbeliefe of S. Thomas A spirit hath neither flesh nor bone c. and against that which all antiquitie teacheth That what he once tooke vpon him he neuer leaueth or casteth off That in putting on glorie he did not put off either nature or yet the conditions and qualities of nature c. Christ verily in taking our nature hath taken both our flesh our bloud and this bloud distributed throughout his veines c. What doth then this Transubstantiation which shutteth vp this his body by it selfe vnder the accidents of bread and his bloud by it selfe vnder the accidents of wine He hath taken likewise both our flesh and our soule and shall then a corporall substance bee turned into a spirituall The bread into the soule of our Lord c. Or if it bee not changed thereinto shall it remaine a body without a soule And if this body which was giuen to the Apostles were liuing was not then this bread changed into a soule But they denie it And if he were dead then should he not be dead and liuing both at once Dead and inuisible as he was giuen but aliue and visible as he did giue and distribute it And how many are the absurdities begotten of one absurditie And who seeth not how the auncient heretickes which called in question the truth of the humane nature of Christ did not a little ground themselues and their assertions vpon these Maxims Verily Iesus Christ our Lord after his resurrection That Christ is absent according to his humaine nature but euery where present as concerning his diuine nature According to the scriptures Iohn 7 Iohn 3. Mathew 26. Mark 6. Luke 24. Acts 1.3 ascended in his body into heauen and left this world vntill the time of his comming againe to iudge the world according as he did instruct his Apostles as hee had made them visible to behold see and as they in like maner after him did aduertise and teach vs You shall not haue me alwaies with you I am here for a while It is expedient for you that I goe I am come into the world and againe I leaue the world I goe to him that sent me from whome I am also come and if I goe not the comforter will not come You shall seeke me but as I haue said vnto the Jewes whither I goe they cannot come And now also I tell it you that is to say in one word looke not for me any more hereafter in this humane nature And in deed hee blesseth them withdraweth himselfe from them and is taken vp on high into heauen and set at the right hand of his father From whence he shall come againe say the Angels euen as he was seene to goe vp into heauen And it must needes be saith S Peter That the heauens doe containe him vnto the time of the restauration of all things And yet notwithstanding hee saith I will not leaue you orphanes I am with you vnto the end of the world I will send you the comforter which shall teach you c. Likewise whensoeuer you shal be two or three gathered together in my name I will be in the miast of you that is according to my diuine nature And thus haue al the auncient Fathers spoken Origen It is not the man that is euerie where According to the Fathers Orig in Mat. tract 33. where two or three bee gathered together in his name or yet alwaies with vs vnto the end of the world or which is in euerie place where the faithfull are assembled but it is the diuine power which is in Iesus Athanasius I goe to the Father But doth he not fill all things euen heauen earth and hell And did he neuer withdraw him selfe from the Father And to goe and come are not these properties belonging to such as are finite and limited within their lists and bounds of time and place by departing from the place where he was not to the place where he was c. But saith he This is because he speaketh of the humane nature which he tooke vpon him in which it behoueth him to goe vnto the father and come from thence againe to iudge the quicke and the dead c. S. Augustine in an infinite sort of places and that very largely You shall haue the poore alwaies with you c. Let not good men saith he be troubled In respect of his maiestie prouidence grace c. it is fulfilled which he said I am alwaies with you c. In respect of the flesh which the word tooke vpon it August in Ioh. tract â—0 as also in respect that he was borne of the Virgine apprehended of the Iewes fastned to the tree taken from off the Crosse wrapped in linnen laid in the Sepulchre manifested at the resurrection it is the same which is said You shall not haue mee alwaies c. The Church inioyed him but a few daies in respect of his bodily presence but now it possesseth him by faith seeth him no more with these bodily eyes c. Idem ad Dardan Ep. 57. What then Said one vnto him is he not euerie where Yes he is euerie where saith he but as a man is soule and flesh so Christ is the word that is to say God as also man and wee must alwaies distinguish in the Scriptures that which is spoken of the one from that which is spoken of the other By reason of the one he is the Creator and in consideration of the other a creature In the one he was here vpon earth and not in heauen when he said No man ascendeth vp into heauen c. In the other he was in heauen notwithstanding that he was not yet ascended vp into heauen notwithstanding that he was yet conuersant and abiding here vpon earth c. And therefore stand fast and irremoueable in thy Christian confession That hee is ascended vp into heauen That he sitteth at the right hand That from thence and not from elsewhere he shal come to iudge the quicke and the dead and that in the very same forme and substance of flesh whereto for certaine saith he he hath granted and freely giuen immortalitie and yet hath not bereft it of his nature And according to this nature we must not make accompt that hee is shed abroad euerie where but rather beware least we in such sort establish the Diuinitie of the
confound the Creator with the creature And not any more to diuide and seperate with Nestorius but with Eutiches to confound and couple together the two natures In like maner S. Ierome Didimus l. 1 de spir sanct or rather Didimus translated by him goeth further Yea if the holy Ghost saith he were a creature euen he should haue a circumscriptible substance that is to say a substance restrained kept within certaine limits Yea saith S. Cyril The Diuinitie could not possibly auoid limitation Cyril de Trinit c. 2 if it were within the reach of any quantitie And then will the fathers exempt and except his glorified body from these rules Can you once thinke how seeing they do not exempt the Diuinity it self if it were possible for it to come vnder any presupposed quantitie Theod. Dial. 2 Verily not Theodoret who saith It is glorified with diuine glorie adored of the celestial powers but notwithstanding a body but notwithstanding subiect to that limitation which it was before c. I heard the Lord who said You shall see the Sonne of man comming in the clouds c. But I know that that which is seene of men is finite and limited August ad Dard. Idem ad q. 35. q. 65. 20. Idem de diuers quaest q. 83. Ep. 6. Idem in Ioh. tract 30. de Consecr d. 2. C. prima quidem Idem ad Dar. Ep. 57. ad Consent 46. Nazianz. ad Theod. dial 1. Concil Chalced apud Damasc l. 3. c. 3. Euagr. l. 2. c. 4 Concil Constant aecumenic 6. for neuer could any man see that nature which is infinite and vnlimited Not S. Augustine For saith hee take from bodies space of place and so you shall make thē not existant and if not existant then not to be any thing at all Againe Euerie body is locall and euerie locall thing is a body whatsoeuer is locall is in one place and not in many and it occupieth with his least part the least place with his greatest the greatest c. Againe The Lord is on high but the Lord which is veritie and truth that is to say in as much as hee is God is also here It must needs be that the body wherin he rose againe marke how he speaketh of his glorified body should continue in one place albeit that his truth bee dispersed and shed abroad euerie where Againe Let vs not be so insolent as to say that the body hath not onely put off mortalitie and corruption by the glory of the resurrection but also that it is now become spirit where it was a body For I belieue and esteeme it to be such a one in heauen as it was here on earth when he ascended into heauen c. For a spirituall body is that which is alreadie immortal with the spirit but not that it is changed into a spirit c. Not Gregorie Nazianzene We teach saith hee the same Christ consisting of a circumscriptible body and of an incircumscriptible spirit of a body which may be contained in a place of a spirit which no place is able to contain c. Not the Orthodox and purer Church in the Councels of Chalcedon Constantinople III. The two natures after the vnion haue verily their owne natures their naturall properties for either of thē doth retaine his natural property so as that it cannot possibly be changed But in the meane time we haue here to obserue that the heretickes of that time against whom the fathers disputed doe not aleadge for themselues any thing of transubstantiation but is not the bodie of Christ in diuers places at one the same time in the holy supper and then is it not either changed or cōfounded with the diuinitie or the properties of the one nature become communicable with the other which no doubt they would not haue forgotten if the Church of that time had taught either transubstantiation or any doctrine which had come neere therto They obiect yea but our Lord came forth of the virgins wombe Tertul. de car Christ c. 4. 20. 23. aduers Marcion l. 3. c. 11. l. 4. c. 21. l. 5. c. 19. Quod communi parefacti corporis lege pepetit Orig. in Luc. hom 14. Ambr. in Luc. l. 2. Hieron ad Eustoch de cast virg Luke 2. Durand l. 4. in l. 4. Sent. D. 44. q. 6 Nu. 21. Leo 1. ad Epis Palaest Hilar. de Trin l. 3. ad Constant August Hieronym ad Pammach Iustin Martyr in quaest q 120 Cyril Alex. in Ioh. l. 12. c. 53. that was closed and shut vp he rise againe the sepulcher fast he went into his discipls the dores made c. Wherfore there is a penetrating of dimensions and a concurrence of bodies in one and the very same place c. Tertullian Origen S. Ambrose and S. Ierome did answere them That Christ being borne did open the wombe of the virgine And S. Luke alleadgeth the law to this purpose Euerie male opening the matrix shal be holy vnto the Lord c. Out of which Theophilact gathereth altogether an other manner of doctrine For saith hee this law properly hath beene accomplished in Christ alone who onely opened the wombe of the virgin for as concerning other mothers their husbands and not their children doe open them And Durand likewise is farre from finding this miracle To the stone rolled vpon the sepulcher Iustinus Martyr would tell them That the diuine power caused it to make way for him or that the Angell rolled it away And Pope Leo the first likewise That Christ rise againe the stone of the sepulcher being rolled away And S. Hilarie in generall That all closed and shut thinges are open to the power of God S. Ierome That the creature giueth place to the Creator c. But yet his entrance the dores being shut is vnanswered Iustinus Martyr answering purposely this verie question This was not saith he by chaunging his bodie into a spirit but by the same reason that our Lord walked vpon the sea causing by his diuine power the sea to befit to walk vpon which of it owne nature was not so in so much as that it did not onely beare vp his bodie but that of Peters also The miracle then was in the sea not in the bodie in the dores which opened by a speciall power and not in the subtlenes as they speake of his bodie Then he addeth For this is the same with the walking of his body vpon the sea without being chaunged for euen so without any manner of change in his bodie he entred in at the dores being shut And therefore he would saith he that his disciples should touch him to the end that they might know that he entred not by changing of his bodie into a spirite but that by diuine power which bringeth thinges to passe beyond the course of nature this bodie of his consisting of grosse parts was entered and come into them Saint
Cyrill The Lord went in to his disciples the dores being shut and that by surpassing through his omnipotencie the nature of things And therefore let no man trouble himself with seeking out of the cause but let him rather consider that the question is not here of a meere man like to our selues but of the Almightie Sonne of God to whome whole nature is subiect This was therefore after the same manner that his walking vpon the sea was which naturally is not giuen to beare vp our feet and note that this was before his bodie was glorified and therefore when thou readest this beware that thou be not turned aside to forsake the true faith c. And if thou bee not able to comprehend the same blame the defects and wantes of thy spirit and say rather That whereas hee thus entred in at the dores being shut it is because he is God and yet not any other then he was at the time of his being conuersant as men amongst his disciples before his passion And in deed the better sort of their expositors of the later writers do not abuse these places to the prouing of the said pearsing through of dimensions imagined and deuised by our aduersaries which maketh that two bodies should occupie but one place The dores say they were opened Ferus in Ioh. c. 20. and why not after the same manner that God caused the earth to open and swallow vp Dathan and his confederates the sea to make way for the Israelites and to drowne the Egiptians or the gates of the prison for the deliuerance of his Apostles And if God say they were able to bring them out of a prison fast shut mortall and corruptible men at they were why should he not himselfe be as able to go in the dores close shut The miracle euermore proceeding by this meanes from the diuine power vnited vnto his humane nature and not from any change made or pretended in the same and the change also whensoeuer any is resting in the things which suffer and obey this power without any extending of it selfe by any manner of way vnto the person Durand That our Lord went in the dores being shut by some other priuie secret place but not through the dores shut c. But if any one amongst so many haue found out this denne or lurking hole wherefore of so many sundrie expositions would they haue vs to make choise of that which is most harsh and obscure And when all is done what hath this to doe with the Sacrament of the holy Supper But we answere them two thinges In the first place That in the matter of the Sacraments as also of this same as Saint Augustine hath taught vs before there is no question to be made concerning any miracle And in the second place That this Maxime abideth euer firme that in God there is not yea and no toge ther and therefore that no miracle how great soeuer can imply any contradiction For the one S. Thomas telleth vs That a miracle commeth of admiration Tho. in 1. parte Summ. q. 105. art 7. that admiration falleth out when the effects are manifest but the cause hidden secret But here we all agree that the effects are hidden secret wherupon they are called mysteries And hereupon also S. Augustine doth roundly cut off all the controuersies saying That the Sacraments are things of great note estimation amongst men August de Trinit li. 5. c. 10 that they may be reuerenced as religious things but that they ought not to worke any admiration in vs as if they were miracles And by name he speaketh there of the holy supper As in deede there was neuer any miracle read of whose effectes were not cleare and manifest to the sences And to the second S. Thomas telleth vs God is not Almightie in respect of the things wherein there is contradiction because that they cannot be accounted of as possible things Thom. 1. p. Summ q. 25. art 3. 4. aduer ger t. l. 1 c. 84. l. 2. c. 25 August de Trini l. 15. c. 14 And he layeth downe for an example That he cannot make one thing and that which is contrarie to the definition of the same as a man vnreasonable a triangle and not three angles or three lines c. Because saith he This should be to haue them and not to haue them And to speake in better tearmes with Saint Augustine Because that This shoulde bee an vnablenesse and want of power for great is the power of the word sayeth hee in that it cannot lie for that therein there cannot bee Est non est but Est est Non non c. But are wee not in Saint Thomas his tearmes when there is made and set before vs a bodie without quantitie a quantitie without dimensions and a locall thing without any place a quantitie therefore without quantitie a bodie without a bodie And thus then they destroy the humane nature of Christ wherein lyeth the principall consolation of mankind the article also of his ascention into heauen of his sitting at the right hand c. that is to say euen our Creed In the sixt place let vs see how they deale with his diuinitie Transubstantiation iniurious to the diuine nature of the Sonne of God It is a rule amongst all the ancient fathers as we haue seene that men should distribute the Sacraments that is to say the signes but that God alone is the giuer of the thing but more particularly in this wherein it pleaseth the Sonne of God to giue himselfe vnto vs his flesh and his blood for our nourishment vnto eternall life But with what reuerence can we say that another giueth it vs and that in such sort as that it dependeth not vpon the institution of the Sacrament in it selfe neither yet of the vertue of the wordes which they call sacramentall but as in the workes and feates of Magicke in which strong imagination worketh the effect of the intention of the priest which vttereth them Whereupon it followeth that God must needs haue tyed his grace to the intention of the confecrating priest and not to his owne institution accompanied with his holy spirit And the Sonne of God shall not be ours that is to say the life which is in him shall not distribute it selfe vnto the faithfull further then the discretion of this intention shall extend And it shall bee in the power or rather in the weaknes of the Priest to frustrate and send away emptie a whole assemblie and companie of Christians gathered together in the name of Christ feruently desiring in a true faith and longing after his grace which hee hath included in this precious gift which he hath vouchsafed freely to bestow vpon them of himself in stead that he hath so graciously declared his good will vnto vs saying When two or three of you shall be gathered together in my â—ame J will bee in the
Idem in Psal 33.1 2. Ierm And how was he carried in his own hands Because that recommending his body his bloud he took into his hands that which the faithful know that is to say the bread and the cup and so he carried himselfe after a certaine maner saying This is my body c. Now let them expound vnto vs what is the meaning of this Quodammodo C. Hocest quod De Consecr D 2. Idem Ep. 118. c. 3 after a certaine sort except it be Sacramentally Or as the Canon saith Improperly not in truth but in a misterie To the end saith he that the sence may bee It is called the body of Christ that is to say it signifieth it He compareth say they the deuotion wherwith it ought to be honoured to that of the Centurion who said vnto our Lord I am not worthie that thou shouldest come vnder my roofe c. But to what purpose if we receiue but the signe Where as we take the thing by faith and the signe with the hand As the Centurion receiued the Lord corporally vnder this roofe and spiritually and by faith in his soule and corporally without faith vnto condemnation spiritually by faith vnto saluation according to that which Saint Augustine saith in an other place That the Virgine is not vnâ—happy Idem in ps 98. because shee did conceiue and beare our Lord in her wombe but by faith in her soule But he hath said say they Worship his footstoole and thereby he meaneth his flesh And of his flesh he saith That no man doth eate it that hath not first worshipped it This is not then the bread And who doubteth that wee ought not to worship the flesh of Christ vnited hypostatically to the Deitie And that no man can eate it which doth not belieue it and that no man can belieue it which doth not worship it and that no man can truely worship it except that hee belieue it And is not this same against our transubstantiators which teach that the wicked eate it Of those I speake which can neither worship nor belieue it But to worship it is to worship it in heauen and not in the bread lifting vp our spirits on high and not casting downe our eyes vpon the earth And this is it that wee dispute Not saith S. Augustine the signe that is seene Idem de doctr Christ l. 3. c. 9. and which goeth away but that whereunto it ought to bee referred But let them blush and bee ashamed that they haue not added there to that which followeth Vpon what ground so euer thou fallest downe to worship looke not down vnto the earth but vp to the holy one whose foot stoole it is Idem in Psal 98. that is to say the humanitie of Christ And when thou worshippest him let not thy thoughts rest in the flesh and without being quickned by the spirit for it is the spirite that quickneth c. And this is the cause why our Lord said to the twelue c. Vnderstand sptritually that which I haue said you shall not eate this body which you see neither shall you drinke this my bloud which they shall shed that shall crucifie me I haue inioyned you by commandement to vse a certaine Sacrament which spiritually vnderstood will giue you life c. Had it not therfore beene better for them that they had left this place vnremembred They cite an other place That which is taken from the fruits of the earth saith hee consecrated by misticall prayer let vs take for the spirituall saluation in remembrance of the passion of our Lord Idem de Trin. l. 3. c. 4. c. it is not sanctified to be so great a Sacrament but by the inuisible operation of the holy Ghost And what is there heere for any man to doubt of As though there were no other operation of the holy Ghost but Transubstantiation For is not regeneration in Baptisme a marueilous worke also of the holy Ghost Wherein notwithstanding the water in his substance receiued not any chaunge But as for that which hee saith of the fruites of the earth and that they are made a great Sacrament they should haue learned that for to continue Sacraments they also continued fruites of the earth and for to continue fruites of the earth they did also continue Sacraments that is to say sacred signes of the grace of God And such like and lesse forcible to proue any thing are these places following It is one Passeouer which the Iewes celebrate as yet with a lamb idem contr li. Pet. l. 2. c. 37. It is an other which we receiue of the body bloud of our Lord. And who denieth it euen since the true Lamb which hath caused to cease the tipical or figuratiue and which hath take froÌ„ it both the thing and also the Sacrament Againe In stead of all the old sacrifices the body of Christ Idem de ciuit Dei l. 17. c. 20 is offered and administred to them which are partakers thereof Or who doubteth of this point And how oft hath it beene told them that the question is of the manner And in the end Idem apud Yuon Carnut Serm. ad Neophyt Idem de doct Christ l. 3. c. 16 they would find it in a place cited by Yuon Bishop of Charters Take and receiuean the bread that which was hanged vpon the Crosse and in the Cup that which issued out of the body of Christ And what is this but the same that he said to the children as here hee speaketh vnto Nouices or new conuerted Christians These things are called Sacraments because that therein one thing is seene and an other vnderstood Communicate in the passion of our Lord and keepe fast in your memories that his flesh was crucified and pearced through for you And yet this place is not found in his workes but alleadged by the said Yuon of Chartres Let onely the sound Reader iudge here what swaie or force these places can afford amongst so manie others by which they are most clearely and planely expounded Cyrill Patriarke of Alexandria giueth vs these Maximes Cyril Anâ—t 12 Our Misterie is not an Anthropophagie that is to say consisteth not in eating of mans flesh we must not set the spirits of the faithfull in the scrole of these grosse conceites beeing occupied in things that are receiued by a pure exquisite and onely faith c. Christ entreth into vs by faith and dwelleth in vs by the holy Ghost for the holy Ghost is not separated from the Sonne c. Cyril 3. c. 24. l. 11. in Ioh. Idem in Leuit. l. 7. Idem in Ioh. l. 3. c. 24. If thou stand perswaded according to the letter in that which is said If you eate not the flesh c. this letter dooth slate thee but if thou be perswaded to vnderstand it spiritually there is the spirit of life to bee found therein c. The only begotten Sonne
was forbidden in the Councell of Laodicea Can. 14. And therefore there was but a little kept because that in the feruent zeale of those times the holy supper was celebrated almost euerie day and that a great deale lesse then the water of the Fonts which for all that was neither transubstantiated nor worshipped And this was the custome of the Church Some of superstition carried it into their houses and some women would wrap it vp in their handkerchefs lockt it vp in their Coffers and eate it at their owne houses c. Now let men iudge if the first ages of the Church did euer take the Sacrament to be God if it would haue suffered these prophanations But these examples are worthie to be as much accompted of in the Church as theirs that vsed to put it in childrens mouthes abusing this place If any man eate my flesh c. or of others who would put it in the mouthes of those that were dead c. being practises that haue beene condemned by many Councels And they are happily vanished and worne away of themselues howsoeuer they were grounded vppon verie auncient tradition euen since the time of Tertullian and S. Cyprian as also by the ordinance of Charlemaine That the Ministers should haue the Eucharist consecrated euerte day L. 1. c. 161. for children Because they had no other staie or foundation then the Scripture misunderstood The custome likewise being not of keeping it but of giuing it to them which were in extremitie grew hereupon that many sinking and shrinking away vnder the heate of persecution they were excluded and put from the Sacraments by the seueritie of this first discipline and that euen to the hower of death whereto the famous storie of Serapio is to bee referred And then that they might be comforted by their being receiued into the peace and Communion of the Church hauing giuen tokens of repentaunce the Ministers of the Church accompanied with their friendes did communicate vnto them the holy Supper and oftentimes also did communicate with them Againe wee reade not in all those 800. yeares The questions moued in these latter ages were not heard of in the first no not of 800. yeares after Christ which fall into the time of Charlemaine in any of the bookes of those graue and holy Doctors any of the questions wherewith the Schooles were afterward filled The people which read and heard the word of God and his seruice in their owne language was wonted to the phrases and manners of speeches vsed in the Scriptures the sheepe of the Lord did heare and vnderstand his voice and rested contented and satisfied therewith Barbarisme brought into the Church did beget these barbarous Expositions and consequently these blasphemous questions not as they are barbarous If our Lord do leaue heauē to come into the place of bread If in comming thither he passe through the ayre If he doe forsake the same againe so soone as the kind is striken vpon with the tooth or else if he goe downe into the stomacke and being in the stomacke whether he rest therin altogether and how long staying in the stomack whether he waite and attend there till the forme of the bread at the least bee disgested whether he chaunge himselfe at such time into the soule or body of the Communicant or whether he vanish into nothing or else returne to heauen Whether the accidents of bread and wine doe cleaue vnto him or else abide hanging in the ayre Whether the Priest in remouing the host doe remoue the body of Christ or the accidents onely Or rather whether the Priest remouing the accidents God do fit and accommodate the bodie of Christ to this mouing Againe Whether the thing nourished or rather poysoned as it is to be seene become a new substance which God createth in the stomacke and whereunto they fasten themselues Whether the body of Christ bee whole and all in euerie part of the host or at the least in those parts which are to be seene by an indifferent and meane sight as also the bloud in any the least drop Whether he be there alwaies standing his head turned toward the Priest c. Or else after the same manner of position and placing that he is in heauen set or otherwise and whether hee be there clothed or naked Whether the Priest be able to consecrate all the bread and wine of the world or that onely which is before him And whether that which he seeth onely or that also which he seeth not prouided that hee be equally distant from the one and the other Whether the words become of sufficient power being spoken once or many times to consecrate many hosts And what the words must bee whether those that our Lord spoke when he blessed the signes which we know not or those fower Hoc est corpus meum Or whether Enim bee requisite and necessarie thereto or not Or else Quod pro vobis datur c. Whether the intent of the Priest bee requisite if not actuall yet at the least habituall or inclining or disposed Whether that Christ bee entred into the bread after this word Hoc is spoken or after Est or the whole fiue words Whether he enter into the same seeing hearing speaking doing all that which he seeth heareth c. in heauen or else blind deafe dumbe c. and a thousand such like which we shall see hereafter Questions such as we shall not find any step or trace of in all the writings of the reuerend old Fathers as neither of their doctrine Whereat these good fathers would bee afraid and ashamed if they should liue againe and which verily I should haue made conscience to haue vttered if conscience did not bind me to discouer and vnfold the absurdities whereinto one falschood once receiued hath cast and plunged vs beeing also such as Dame impudencie her selfe would blush at howsoeuer that strumpet clothed with Scarlet died in the bloud of the Martyrs of Christ doe not blush thereat at all CHAP. VIII What hath beene the originall proceeding and increase of the opinion of Transubstantiation vnto the yeare 1215. And how it was ratisied and established by a decree in the Councell of Laterane THus then we see what the opinion was not onely of the first old writers but of all almost the later concerning the holy supper and how far off it was from that which is receiued at this day And now it onely remaineth that we see how it is transubstantiated by what degrees manner of proceeding The originall of Transubstantiation which worke wee will frame and applie our sclues in these our next labours to set downe Now it is a fresh to bee set before our eyes that the first zeale of Christendome beeing decaied and dead Christians came but fewe and seldome to the receiuing of the holy Sacrament in so much as that we haue heard those good Fathers complaining of the same in their Sermons and forced to
let him know that tendeth any other course that he shall not attaine vnto the light of the truth which he shal grope after in darknes To be short saith he what soeuer is said since the apostles times is cut off it beareth no authority with it c. Hieronym in Psal 87. how holie prudent soeuer the Authors thereof might be S. August The Canonicall Scripture is set vpon a throne and euerie faithfull vnderstanding must be subiect thereunto If we yea if an Angel from heauen August contr Faust l. 11. c. 5. cont lit ras Petil. 6 lib. 2. contr Donatist c. 6. tract 2 in Ep. S. Iohan do teach any thing more then that which is contained in the Scriptures the Law or the Gospel let him be accursed In our cōtrouersies let vs bring this ballance these gold waights as out of the closet of God to iudge that of weight from that which is light Let vs there iudge of errors for God hath placed in the Scriptures a bright and cleare shining firmament to discouer confute them The Councels for saith he vnto the Arrians I alledge not vnto thee the Councell of Nice Cont. Maxim Episc Arrian l. 3. c. 14. De Ciuit. Dei l. 11. c. 1. Epist 166. De vnit eccles c. 1. 3. 4. 5. 6. 16. neither therefore doe thou alledge vnto me the councel of Rimini but let vs trie the maistry by the Scriptures which both you and I my selfe doe well approue c. The Church likewise for The citie of God doth beleeue in the Scriptures and by them is faith conceiued In the Scriptures saith he we haue learned Christ therein also haue we learned to know the Church we haue knowne the head and therefore cannot misknow the bodie thereof VVhether we or the Donatists be the Church the Scriptures alone will teach and instruct vs. Saint Chrysostome The ignoraunce of the Scriptures hath begotten heresies c. Though the dead should liue again or an Angel descend frō heauen Chrysost in hom de Laza. yet we must principally and before them beleeue the Scripture The Angels are but seruants ministring spirits but the Scripture is the Lord maister In Epi. ad Gal. hom 1. In 5. Mat. hom 43. 49. In 1. ad Thess homil 7. In 2. ad Corin. homil 33. In Psal 5.95.142.147 In at this gate doe both the sheepe and shepheard enter they driue away heretikes who so entreth not by them is a theefe The Scripture is the kingdome of heauen it is inclosed therein and fastned thereunto The gate of this kingdome is the vnderstanding of the Scriptures Setting our course and sailing after them wee haue the sonne of God for our patron and protector they are our rule and our squire As the light is vnto the eies so is the law of God vnto our spirits without it all our senses halt An heire doth willingly possesse himselfe of his fathers will and testament and so should we no lesse of the Scriptures the furniture and prouision for our warre against sinne and Sathan himselfe c. In which saith he in another place wee must either denie Christ or blot out the Scriptures or else become the obedient seruants of the Scriptures And if he said this then against the heretikes of his time then much more against Antichrist to come and vpon farre more iust causes and considerations For saith he when this cursed heresie the armie of Antichrist shall possesse the Churches there will not bee found any proofe or maner of helpe to trie and know Christendome by but the holy Scriptures By them alone a man shall know where and who shall bee the true church In this confusion and hurlie burlie there will bee no want of broching and blasing abrode of miracles for euen alreadie the counterfet Christians haue most but and if a man looke any other way then to the Scriptures hee cannot but bee offended perish and fall into the abhomination of desolation which shall bee in the holie places of the Church And therefore our sauiour Christ knowing afore hand that such confusion should follow in the latter daies will that we flie vnto the Scriptures And now also this is the cause why according to the aduertisement of Saint Chrysostome we call you thereunto we which thus alledge and contend with the hazard of our liues and for the working of your saluation and our owne that that Antichrist is alreadie come and seated in your Church and all this according to the Scriptures and by the Scriptures Hereto you replie If his Scriptures alone take place in this controuersie then what shall become of so many goodly traditions What becommeth them of the traditions 1. Cor. 11. What shall become of our Church Verely if you speake of diuine traditions such as whereof Saint Paule saith I haue receiued of the Lord Quod tradidi vobis whatsoeuer I haue deliuered vnto you of those which haue their foundation in the Scriptures and whereof Irenaeus saith vnto vs Looke what Gospel the Apostles preached the same they deliuered vnto vs tradiderunt inquit nobis in the Scriptures Of them saith Saint Cyprian which descend from the authoritie of the Gospel Cypri in Epi. 74. ad Pomp. and the writing of the Apostles Verelie we will be readie to defend them if you will beleeue vs with common armour we shall be both the one and the other quit and freed from all our paines and trouble for the Scriptures and they wil mutuallie acknowledge one another as doe the little riuers and their heads or springs being touched with the touchstone of the Scripture they will hold their value But if by Traditions you meane mans inuentions and doctrines that are without and out of the Scriptures then we tell you that Christ hath giuen definitiue sentence thereof In vaine do you serue me Matth. 15 9 teaching for doctrines the commaundements of men And thus spake he to the Pharisies who wholy rested themselues in the Church in the Sorbone of that time which said as you do of yours at Trent that it was no lesse grieuous an offence to commit against or omit any thing contained in their traditions In Thal. ord 4. tract 4. dist 10 Esay 29 13. then and if such commission or omission had beene in respect of any point of the law it selfe And there is great like lihoode that it is come vpon you which was forespoken by the Prophets They haue serued mee according to the ordinances of men Ierem. 8 8. and therefore wisedome shall perish from their wise men They haue cast behind them the worde of the Lord and there is no wisdome in them But if you suspect the soundnesse of the Scripture Iust in Tryph or rather the vprightnesse of God in his owne cause then let vs heare the fathers Iustine We must giue credite to God and his ordinances alone and not vnto humane traditions And that he ruleth them
the Iesuite which is sung in great Greece or that part of Italie which is called Basilicata But who will belieue or giue anie credite vnto him seeing that Gregorie telleth vs and manie others after and besides him that S. Peter did celebrate the Eucharist most plainelie and simplie without adding to the words of the institution so much as the Lords prayer And who can perswade himself that the Church of Rome holding so much of S. Peter that vnder his name it exalteth it selfe aboue the whole world would offer him the iniurie as to make his Masse inferiour to that of S. Gregories yea to driue it out of Rome to restraine and keepe it within the number of a few poore priests keeping the mountaines of Basilicata And such notwithstanding altogether are the proofes which they produce for their Masses or Lithurgies which they pretend to be the Apostles Of the Masse attributed to S. Denys Acts. 17. Neither yet haue they anie firmer ground or more assured warrant for those Masses which they attribute vnto the Apostles their Disciples It is said in the Actes that Denis Areopagita was conuerted at Athens at the preaching of S. Paule a great mischief if he shall not haue left with vs the same institutiō which he receiued of Paul but yet verilie it is greater if S. Paule deliuered anie other to him then he did to the Corinthians yea such an other as he neuer receiued or was taught of Christ the Son of God In the meane time they clap vs vp together a Masse of his diuine function and seruice but farre differing as shall bee seene from that which they themselues do exercise and practise and yet notwithstanding the same hauing as little part and portion in Denys as the others had in the Apostles That wee may not alledge against them how that the stile is altogether differing from the Apostolicall manner of writing neither yet the curious speculations therein propounding and setting before vs as it were in an Inuentorie whatsoeuer is contained in the heauens howsoeuer they be expresly forbidden by that great Apostle howbeit that he had beene rapt and carried vp into the third heauen because it may bee that these thinges would not content the contentious Let vs come and see how these bookes can be thought to bee his hauing obserued the proofes to the contrarie as they follow Eusebius reckoning vp all the famous men in the Church called by the name of Denys and whatsoeuer they had written sayeth not a word of this man S. Ierome in his Catalogue of worthy men speaketh of two or three of this name but of this man or of any of his books he is not remembred Origene Chrysostome and all the first Greekes and Latines in like manner altogether as little Gregor homil 33 de decem drachmis Yea Gregorie the great citing the bookes of this Denys calleth him not Areopagite He speaketh of the consecration of Monkes who can denie but that these ceremonies were vnknowne more then three hundred yeares after Christ And that Denys speaketh also of their shauing which cannot bee proued to haue beene knowne or heard of more then 600. yeares after saue that the Fathers in generall termes did admonish those of the Clergie that they should not fashion themselues after the vaine manner of such men who gloried in their long haire Of the vse of Godfathers in Baptisme but who is hee that is able to shew out of anie old either Greek or Latine writer I say not this name but so much as any trace or smal impression of the thing for many ages after Howsoeuer they haue beene verie exact and exquisite in describing all the ceremonies obserued in Baptisme Dionisius de diuin nominib But what Denys soeuer this might bee he neuer so much as once pretendeth that it should bee the Areopagite for in his bookes of diuine names he reckoneth vp Clement the Philosopher and they will haue him to bee the Romaine but it appeareth that hee was an Alexandrian seeing it is so found and proued by a place in his viii booke hee liued about the yeare 200. And therefore further or otherwise then hee witnesseth of himselfe what haue wee to doe to expect and looke what others doe say In like manner wee see that Theodore Gaza in his preface vpon the Problemes of Alexander Aphrodiseus Theod. Gaza in praef in proble Aphrod Erasmus vpon Act. 17. Caietan vppon the Actes cap. 17. and vpon the third of the Kings Sixtus Senensis lib. 4. in dictione Athanasius dedicated vnto Pope Nicholas the fift pronounceth that these bookes of the Hierarchie were neuer made by Denys the Athenian So sayeth Erasmus also writing vpō the Acts and he addeth his reason I do not thinke sayeth he that in these first times the Christians had so manie ceremonies c. Laurentius Valla that the learned of his time did attribute them vnto one Apollinaris as also the Cardinall Caietan sheweth that they could not bee his and Sixtus Senensis dooth so faintlie and doubtfullie mantain the contradictorie part as that he reiecteth the questions concerning the old new Testament attributed to Athanasius Seeing sayth he that in the fourth question there is mention made of the misticall Diuinitie which I thinke to haue beene vnknowne at that time To bee short I doubte not but that it will befall the man whosoeuer hee bee that shall reade them through as it happened to one Gulielmus Grocinus a worthy man an English Diuine nothing suspected of our aduersaries who as Erasmus maketh mention hauing vndertaken in the time of king Henrie the eight publikelie to expound this writer in S. Paules Church in London did straine himself mightilie euen from the beginning to take away all doubt from such as should once imagine that Denys Areopagite should not be the author thereof but scarse was he proceeded to the middest before that he vnsaide it againe and was neare to haue craued pardon and foregiuenes of his auditors whereby we may note what consciences our aduersaries beare about them not letting to paye out anie manner of counterfeyted coyne whatsoeuer Nicen. Synod 2. Against all this they set the councell of Nice but let vs marke that it is the second held about the adoration and worshipping of Images about the yeare 800. and therewithall that in the same he is not called Areopagite Constantinop Syn. 3. They alledge also the Councell of Constantinople the third wherein there is a certain place though cold and blunt inough alledged about his books against the Monothelites This was helde about the yeare 680. But what is this for to proue vnto vs the antiquitie thereof For as concerning that which they take out of the first Homilie of Origen vpon S. Iohn they might blush and be ashamed seeing he nameth none but the Manichies and Arrians in that place and how long was that after him But what shal we say seeing in France where it is held that
vs I cannot but meruaile how against all both Euangelical Apostolicall doctrine men dare to offer in some places water in the cup c. Afterward he addeth For they should aske counsell at those whom they follow wherefore if in the sacrifice which is Christ wee are not to follow any other then Christ it must of necessitie follow and be laid vpon vs that we ought to obey and doe as Christ hath done and also commanded vs to doe seeing hee telleth vs in his Gospell If you doe the things which I command you I call you no more seruantes but friendes For that Christ ought onely to be heard saith he God the father himselfe hath witnessed it from heauen saying This is my welbeloued Sonne c. heare him Whereupon then it must follow that we are not to regard what euery one before vs hath iudged meet and conuenient to be done but vnto that which Iesus Christ hath done which is before all because wee are not to apply our selues to follow and imitate the custome of man but the truth and veritie of God But and if thy conscience checke or trouble thee by reason of the life and doinges of thy predecessors who haue so and so liued and which haue followed such and such traditions he putteth into thy mouth what to answere vnto thy selfe in that case likewise For saith he if any of our Predecessors either through ignorance or foolish simplicitie haue held otherwise then the Lord hath taught vs eyther by his precept or by his example God will pardon such his simplicitie through his rich and aboundant mercie but vnto vs forewarned taught the contrarie by himselfe it cannot be pardoned and forgiuen Now in deede it were meet that we should write out all the whole treatise because it driueth onely and aymeth at the annihilating of all manner of mens traditions that so nothing might bee embraced but the pure institution of Christ contained in the Gospell and in the Apostle But that wee may come to the particular and speciall pointes of this diuine seruice we haue alreadie seene and heard what he hath said of the generall confession which the Minister or Priest made of the sinnes of the people and his owne There was also at this time in the Christian assemblies a mounted or raised place out of which the reader appointed for the same vsed to reade the scriptures as also the Bb. to make his sermons vpon the same so read Cyprian de operib Cardinal Christi Conciliū Laodic Canon 19. Which said place Cyprian calleth Tribunal ecclesiae but others Suggestum pulpitum c. And the sermon or Homelie was made after the reading of the Gospell and before the celebration of the Sacrament as appeareth by the Councell of Laodicea that is to say before the going out of those which were to be instructed and catechised in Christianitie to the end that they might bee receiued into the Christian Church This reading is likewise apparant Cypr. lib. 2. Epist 5. where Saint Cyprian ordained for the reader a Confessor of the name of Christ He was worthie saith he not for his age but for his deserts of some higher roome in the church but it seemed good vnto vs that he should begin at the office of reading because nothing soundeth better in that mouth which hath confessed Christ by a glorious professing and witnessing of him then the sound of the celebrating of the diuine lectures To reade saith he the Gospel of Christ which maketh the Martyrs to come from the stockes to the pulpit c. and because such ioy loueth not any lingring delay Dominico legit Hee began to reade vpon the day of the holy Supper c. And as for the sermon Eusebius maketh mention that it was ordinarily and commonly vsed in the holy assemblies of the African Churches Euseb lib. 7. cap. 22. and wee haue many places also to that effect out of Saint Cyprian Wee learne also of Origene that it was the custome that the Reader should reade the scripture Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 12. Cipri serm in orat Doinic and the Pastor expound it And Socrates maketh mention that in the Church of Alexandria this was Origene his professed practise And as concerning prayers Our praying saith Saint Ciprian is publike and common not for one man alone but for all the people for that likewise all this people is but as one And to the end that all carnall cogitation may bee far from vs the Minister before praier prepareth the hearts of the brethren by this preface Sursum corda which is lift vp your harts on high to the end that the people which answere Habemus ad Dominū that is we lift them vp vnto the Lord may be forewarned not to think of any thing but him onely And consequently the celebration of the Lordes Supper followed the insticution whereof was read for the blessing of the sacraments and after that a generall prayer as appeareth in a historie of one possessed of a Deuill of whom he saith Cypr. in serm de lapsis that she was impatient during the time of this prayer Precis orationisque nostra impatiens c. But that solennibus adimpletis the holy things being accomplished that is to say Et accipientibus caeteris locus eius aduenit Cypr. de Caena Dominic the blessing of the sacraments the Deacon beginning to giue the cup she would haue taken it in her place howbeit very quickly by a secret instnct and motion from God she began to turne away her face At which time likewise all the faithfull indifferently without exception of any did communicate practising the same that he speaketh of elsewhere saying The Priests are not admitted alone to the communicating of this foode but the whole church euery one receiueth his portion equally c. Hitherto you see the simple and sincere manner of diuine seruice continued and vsed in the Church but let vs see what thinges they were that in this meane time are reported to haue beene added thereunto by the Bishops of Rome Some attribute to Pope Alexander the first this clause Qui pridie quam pateretur c. that is who in the day before his passion tooke the bread in his precious hands and lifting vp his eyes vnto thee O God his father most mightie and yeelding thee thankes blessed it brake it and gaue it to his disciples saying take eate ye all c. Whereby appeareth that in former times by their owne testimony these words Hoc est corpus meum was pronounced without any Canon and without any preface Iustin Apol. 2. Plat. in Sixt. 1. as we may reade them all naked and by themselues in Iustine his second Apologie Do this in remembrance of me This is my bodie This is my bloud c. To Sixtus 1. is attributed Sanctus c. Holy holy holy Lorde God of hostes the heauens and earth are ful of thy glorie And this which Platina did set
his soueraigne and singular workes of creation and gouernment in the creatures also there are some vertues which are communicated vnto them by God in the Image there is neither the one nor the other Polyd. Virgil. l. 6. c. 13. for it can neither see heare nor vnderstand c. Polydor Virgill doth likewise take offence against these superstitions and concludeth in these wordes Wee are fallen into such a vaine of follie and doting rage towardes our Images as that the duties and seruices of pietie Caietan in Pentatcu Exod. c. 20. which wee seem to performe in that behalfe are nothing but verie impieties themselues The Cardinall Caietanus is taken vppe and checked for comprising and lapping vppe together both the Idoll and the Image in a like defence notwithstanding that he make a distinction inter Dolatum Similitudinem in respect of the wordes and Paulus Burgensis likewise one of the most learned Hebricians which had beene amongst them and in whome notwithstanding our aduersaries do place and put their chiefest hope of defence Paulus Ricius sayeth franklie and freelie after hee had weighed all the reasons and aunsweres to the same which were brought to that ende and purpose If wee must abstaine from thinges sacrificed to Idols because of the infirme and weake in faith how much more then whatsoeuer Thomas can say from this pestilent worshipping'of Images c These are the wilde vine growing vp and ouerspreading the natural vine of Christ these are the Darnell in his field The Iewes haue brought in the works of the law the Gentiles Images c. which I would to God that they had neuer come in our Temples then we should haue learned to haue lift vp our hearts to heauen in stead of bowing and casting them down to fixe them vpon Images In a word Ludouicus Viues writing vpoÌ„ S. Augustine saith That he cannot see any difference betwixt certain Christians addicted to the honouring of Images and the Pagans worshipping their Idols And Erasmus concludeth That it is more safe and sure to take them away then to expect or waite vntill there be some rule good directions for the moderating of the same Cassand in Consult deuised and established But Cassander after that hee hath alleadged Biel saith Who shall be able to do it who shall be able to bring backe the people from this their entred course of superstition especiallie seeing that such as teach them are themselues the authors of these superstitions Michael Episc Mersburg in Cathechismo are those that nourish and cherish them in their harts to the end they may sucke out some profite from them But our Fathers of the Councell of Trent imagined that they had well looked into the curing of all the mischiefes threatned against them by all these so euident testimonies when they ordained in their Index expurgatorius that these places of Polydor Viues Erasmus Cassander and others should be raced and left out in the first impression insuing But the very defenders of these abuses coÌ„mitted in this our time haue bin in some sort ashamed of their doctrine as Martinus Peresius Ambrosius Catharinus Nicolaus Saunderus intreating of this matter holding against Thomas Scotus BonaueÌ„tura That the Images cannot be worshipped after the same maner that the persons may whom they do represent And Alphonsus of Castres their resuter of heresies proceedeth yet further That wee must not at all worship or doe any reuerence vnto Images but rather before the Images for feare of being condemned for Heretikes our selues And Bellarmine willing to set them at one commeth so farre as to saye Bellar. de Ima l. 2. First That we must honour but not adore or worship them by praying vnto theÌ„ Secondly That no man may teach especiallie in any sermons that they ought to be worshipped with Latria no not the Image of Christ himselfe but rather the contrarie Where is now the second Nicene Councell affirming That there is but one kind of Worshippe one I say for the originall and for the image framed after the same c Thirdlie That images cannot properlie and of themselues be worshipped as the patternes themselues whereby they are made and that neither Latria nor Huperdulia nor yet Dulia or any other adoration or seruice is properlie due vnto them but I know not what after the proportion of those whereof they are Images What will now become of Thomas his ordering of the controuersie betwixt Scotus and Bonauentura c And finallie That there is no other honour dew vnto them then such as is vouchsafed and giuen to the bookes and vessels of the Church as to the cups and their couerings c. And what is now become of these kneelings inuocations and cleare euident worshippings For who did euer worship the Masse books the holy linnens or cups c But how much more brief and shorter course had it bin to haue held themselues to the pure vndefiled word of God to the obseruatioÌ„s of the ancient church theÌ„ to incumber the people with so manie superstitions ignorances and impieties as that no man is able to free them againe no not with all the distinctions limitations fine deuises or shifts that can be imagined And how much better had it been to haue followed the counsell of Gratianus in his Decree and that vpon far better ground Gratian D. 63. C. Qâ—ia Sancta seeing that all Images in the Church of Rome are of mans ordinance whereas the brasen Serpent in Israel was of Gods ordinance And notwithstanding hee saith Ezechias destroyed the brasen Serpent which Moses had set vp in the desart by the expresse commaundement of God because the people moued by the miracles which they saw betooke themselues to the worshipping of it whereupon saith he we see the greatnes of the authoritie of the church as that if our fathers predecessors haue done any thing in their time blameles without falt that the same afterward do turn into superstition or error that theÌ„ in such case the succeeding persons are to destroy and vndoe the same without delay that with great authority In the ende they make God a party with them It is he say they who hath taught it vs for wherfore did he commaud Moses to erect a brasen Serpent in the desert and to make Cherubins ouer the Arke As if God had bound himself by the commandements that he hath giuen vs and left vs free As if Abraham had aunswered God I will not sacrifice my Son for thou hast said Thou shalt not kill But wee haue authority to beare vs out for the caruing and worshipping of Images let them shew vs a contrary commandement forbidding vs to make any To this blasphemous obiection by which they make God the author of their abhomination they shal be aunswered by Tertullian for me Tertullian being beaten with this argument by the Idolaters of his time Tertul. de Idolo for euen
the breade giuen to those that were catechised which wee call the hallowed breade to the washing of feete practised vppon the Apostles c. which neuerthelesse do shew vnto vs at large in their treatises that howsoeuer they abuse the word yet they doe not let as need requireth to take and vnderstand it in the right vse and signification And as for the worde Sacrifice the Grammarians likewise say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the priesthood that is the care or administratiō of holy things And this is the cause that euery consecrated action hath beene called by this name likewise it hath purposely beene vsed to signifie the diuine seruice because that the Iewes and the Gentiles did vse it so Rom. 15. Phil. 2. Orig. ad Rom. l. 10. Chrysost ad Rom. hom 29 Epiph. haeres 79. Angust de ciuit Det. l. 10. c. 6 Tertul in Apolog Idem ad Scapul Iren. l. 4. contr haeres c. 34. Psal 50.69 Ecclesiastic 35 Ad. Heb. c. 13. August epist 120. ad Honorat Euseb de Demonstr l. 1. c. 10. Tertul. c. 4. contr Marciō Philip. 4. Hebr. 3. Iren. l. 4. c. 32. 34. Cypr. serm 1. de cleemos August ep 122 Psalm 51. Ecclesiastic 35. Rom. 12.2 who placed all their seruices in Sacrifices Thus wee see that Saint Paul called all the ministerie of the Gospell a Sacrifice And Origen saith This is a very worke of the Priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospell Chrysostome My Priesthood or sacrificing office is to preach the Gospell Epiphanius speaking of them which were chosen in the thirteenth of the Actes saith They did sacrifice the Gospell And in the same sence Saint Augustine likewise hath said We call a sacrifice euery worke that hath relation vnto God being done to the end that wee may cleaue and sticke vnto him in a holy societie As Tertullian speaking of prayers I offer vnto him the fattest sacrifice that I am able euen prayer which hee hath commanded proceeding from a chaste bodie from a harmelesse soule from a holy spirite c. Ireneus Our altar is in heauen whither our prayers and offeringes are directed And the praises of God and giuing of thankes are called by the name of Sacrifices in the Psalmes Whereupon Saint Augustine saith Wee giue thankes to the Lord our God which is the great Sacrament in the sacrifice of the New Testament c. And Eusebius We sacrifice and burne the memorie of this great sacrifice c. rendring thankes to the God of our saluation c. And Tertullian The Samaritane intended to offer a true sacrifice euen the sacrifice of praise and thankesgiuing in the true temple and to the true sacrificer Iesus Christ c. The offeringes likewise which are made in the Christian assemblies for the reliefe of the poore haue had this name giuen them in Saint Paule A smell of a sweete sauour a sacrifice acceptable vnto God offeringes wherewith hee is well pleased In Ireneus We offer vnto God the first fruites of his giftes feeding the hungrie and cloathing the naked c. In Saint Cyprian where he reprocheth a rich widow Comest thou to the Lords banquet without a sacrifice And Saint Augustine which calleth the almes of certaine matrons sacrifices the table of the Temple whereuppon they were laide an Altar and to bee briefe a broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice vnto God Psalme 51. so is charitie towardes a mans neighbour and the vowes which wee make of consecrating and dedicating of our liues vnto the Lord Rom. 12. And why then should any man make it strange that the olde writers haue called the holy Supper a Sacrifice seeing that all these actions doe meete together in it namely a holy office a remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ vppon the Crosse the reading and preaching of his worde feruent praiers a serious and deepe meditation of sinne and of the grace of God both together the contrition of hart the vow of sacrificing from thence forward soule and bodie vnto God and the opening of the bowelles of compassion towardes the brethren all of them such actions as euerie one whereof by it selfe is called both in the holy scriptures as also in the fathers Oblations and Sacrifices and how much more then that which doth comprise them all in it selfe alone But that we may not contend about wordes let vs come to the question which is If the Masse bee a propitiatorie Sacrifice and also if the holy Supper in his puritie were instituted for the same end if our Lord Iesus bee there sacrificed a new really and in very deed for a propitiation of our sinnes that is to say for the sinnes of the quicke and the dead by the Ministers or Priestes which things we denie and our aduersaries affirme The scripture telleth vs That there are no propitiatory sacrifices in the new Testament besides that of Iesus Christ himselfe That the lambe was slaine before the foundation of the worlde And this lambe is the eternall Sonne of God whose sacrifice cannot chuse but be almighty all-sufficient absolutely perfect in respect of the desired end namely the saluation of men And therefore for the saluation of man wee haue no need neither of reiterating any sacrifice neither of any other new and neuer before offered Sacrifice whatsoeuer on the contrary all the Sacrifices of the lawe in their imperfections doe leade vs to the perfection of this same in their being often reiterated they shew vs their insufficiencie and weaknesse to bee cut off and ended in the strength and efficacie of this onely one Whereuppon it commeth that in the new Testament we heare not any more of Sacrifices or Sacrificing Priestes Of Sacrificing Priestes saue where as it is taught to bee the name and office of all and euerie Christian You are saith Saint Peter a royall priesthood a holy priesthood a holy people 1. Pet. 2. Apocal. 1. c. And Saint Iohn Christ hath made vs kinges and priestes vnto God his father to offer saith the Glosse acceptable sacrifices vnto God by him Of sacrifices also in like manner saue that wee render continuall thankes vnto God for this great sacrifice by the consecrating of whatsoeuer is in vs To offer vnto God sayeth the Apostle spirituall sacrifices which may bee acceptable vnto him in Iesus Christ 1. Pet. 2. Rom. 2. euen our selues a liuing sacrifice which is our reasonable seruing c. Likewise in the holy Supper from whence they woulde deriue the Masse there is no worke of sacrifice for sinne The sacrifice of Iesus Christ was accomplished vppon the Crosse where hee was slaine for vs and not in the holy Supper but the remembrance of that sacrifice offered vppon the Crosse is renewed in the Supper according to the institution of the Lorde vntil his comming that is without the being of any other sacrifices for sinne that partition wall and to the vtter cutting off of all expectation or further looking after of
Idem l. 3. c. 4. l 4. c. 5. sometimes we consecrate our selues all wholy vnto him and his high priest or sacrificer which is to Christ dedicating I say our selues bodies and soules vnto this word where wee haue to obserue that he reckeneth vp the sacrifice of Christians as the memorie of the passion of our Lorde thankesgiuing prayers praises and offering vppe of our selues c. but of the sacrifice without blood which they pretend whether it bee in the Supper or in the Masse not one word Nowe about this time was the first generall Councell of Nyce held Can. Nicaen wherein wee haue a Canon all saue some little parte thereof drawne out of the Vatican librarie the title whereof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the holy table The wordes are Wee doe not rest and content our selues with the breade ministred vnto vs here belowe or yet in the cuppe but lifting vppe the vnderstanding of our mindes wee thinke by faith that the Lambe of God taking away the sinnes of the worlde lyeth in this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrificed by the Priestes without being slaine c. Where wee obserue agreeing with the doctrine going before that there is insinuated a certaine secrete opposition betwixt the holy table and the Altars of the lawe of the Lambe which taketh away the sinnes of the worlde and the Sacrifices of the lawe which were nothing but figures and shadowes of the Sacrifice which was there offered to this which is but renewed by being called to minde and of the bodily presence and visible substance of the one to the eating and receiuing of the other by faith And this appeareth more euidently by that which followeth which calleth vs cleane backe from all thinking of a sacrifice to the receiuing and communicating of a sacrament that is That we truely and verily receiuing his precious bodie and blood belieue these thinges to bee the infallible signes of our resurrection And this is the cause why wee take not much but a little that so wee may know that it is not to fill vs full vnto bodily nourishment but to further and feed the worke of our sanctification For if hee had rested in the sacrifice woulde that haue followed which he saith And that notwithstanding our being present at this sacrifice wee haue the resurrection and the life c. Athanas orat 3. cont Arrian Whereupon also Athanasius of the same time saith The oblation or sacrifice of the Lord once offered did accomplish all thinges and remaineth fast and sure throughout all times Aaron had his successors but the Lorde sine transitione successione without any succession or change from one to another holdeth the priesthood for euer Saint Basill Those which were wont to be consecrated of the seed of Aaron are excluded Basill in 1. c. Esa to the end that there might come in their roome a priest according to the order of Melchisedec and not the sacrificing priestes of the Church of Rome There is no more any question saith he of the continuall sacrifice neither yet of these so oft reiterated and renewed sacrifices c. For there is but one sacrifice that is Christ and the mortification of the Saintes which is become famous and renowned for their confessing of him There is but one besprinkling and cleansing with water and that is the washing of the new birth there is but one purgation for sinne that is his blood shedde for the saluation of the world To what end saith the Lord serueth so many sacrifices he requireth but one reiecting all whatsoeuer els that is that euerie man doe reconcile and offer himselfe to God appearing before him a liuing sacrifice by a reasonable seruing of him and offering vnto God the sacrifice of praise c. Againe Now in the end and latter age of the worlde one onely sacrifice is approued once offerred for an oblation for sinne For the Lambe of God hath taken away the sin of the world offering himselfe an oblation and sacrifice of a smell of a sweet sauour c. Idem in psal 115. And in another place I will therefore sacrifice my soule vnto thy praise O Lord as it were vpon some Altar I will offer vnto thee the sacrifice of praise which is more worth then an infinite number of others c. Gregorius Nazianzenus This great sacrifice Gregor Nazianz in Pasch orat 2. which in his first nature could not bee sacrificed is mingled with all the sacrifices of the lawe That same I say which is the purgation not of one parte of the worlde nor forsome certaine time but of the whole world and for euer And thus we are admonished not to seeke for any other But saith he we offer vnto God vpon his celestiall Altar together with Angels the Sacrifice of praise let vs passe through the first vaile and drawe neere vnto the second let vs sacrifice to God at all times And hee addeth For the chiefe and principall point of wisedome is a good and honest life purged and made cleane before God euen that God which is most pure and requireth no other sacrifice at our handes but this purenesse which the scripture commonly calleth a contrite and broken heart the sacrifice of praise a newe creature in Christ c. Eusebius Emissenus saith Euseb Emissen de caen Dom. Seeing that our Lorde was to conuey vp into the heauen beyond the reach of our pearcing sight this his humane bodie which he had taken vppon him it was needfull that vppon this day hee should consecrate for vs the Sacrament of his bodie and of his blood that so what had once beene offered vppe for the price of our redemption might bee honoured in a mysterie for euer to the end that as redemption hath his ordinarie course for the saluation of men without any wearisomnesse so also the euerlasting oblation perpetuall sacrifice of this redemption might liue and continue fresh in our memorie and that this one true and perfect sacrifice that is to say Christ might continually bee present in grace which wee must iudge of by faith and not by outward appearance by the inward affection and not by the outward sight Where wee are to note that hee saith Sacrament not Sacrifice and that hee opposeth the remembrance of the oblation to the oblation it selfe the powerfull course and continuance of redemption to redemption it selfe once wrought the presence of grace to the reall presence and the body of Christ lifted vp to heauen to the Sacrament of the same left remayning in the Supper Epiphanius Epiphanius cont Marcion haere 42. 35. Haue you offered me sacrifice saith the Lord fortie yeares in the wildernesse c. To the end that they might learne that God by the comming of his Christ hath taken away all manner of vse of sacrifices and that in respect of one sacrifice which hath perfected and accomplished all the other sacrifices that went before
spoke in the verse going before For why shall it in that place signifie vnto Bellarmine the seuere iudgement of God examining and making triall of workes and doctrines and in this place a materiall fire of Purgatorie which burneth not workes or doctrines whereof the question is but the soules of men And in deed S. Augustine and S. Gregorie haue taken both these two fires for one that is to say tribulations Chrysostome and Theophilact for one that is the euerlasting fire and many of the late writers for one namely Purgatorie The distinction came not to be knowne vntill such time as it was espied that the former word could not bee auouched in this signification and therefore they haue restrained it to this latter Now we say that this commeth to passe in many good Doctors and Teachers who haue built and brocht many friuolous doctrines of a good intention vpon this foundation of Christian faith and cease not notwithstanding to be happie by the mercies of God because they haue retained and held it fast especially at the time of the approaching of the pangs of their death as is recorded of many in writing and which doe now ioy and reioyce in heauen to see them burnt and deuoured yea euen this pretended fire also by the effectuall power of the word of God whome they see and well perceiue to bee glorified in the destruction of their workes Now whosoeuer he is that shall reade this text without preiudice wil easily rest satisfied with this interpretation And in deed that of Bellarmines for it doth not agree with any of the old writers cannot free it selfe frō many inconueniences We are very neere at agreement with him concerning that which is to be vnderstood by the foundation builders and that which is diuersly built thereupon But we still differ cannot agree about the day of fire which trieth and proueth the doctrines nor yet vpon the fire from which the Teachers doe escape and saue themselues hee confuteth the opinion of Caietanus who vnderstandeth it to be the day of euerie particular mans iudgement that is to say his last day or deathes day And for mine owne part I agree with him therein as holding it absurd without bringing any further witnesse for the same But hee would vnderstand by the same the latter iudgement presupposing still that it is that day of the Lord. Now the Apostle saith that day simply He saith also that in that day it shall bee manifested which side hath the truth by the proofe and tryall which shal be made and that before such as it concerneth to know the same This then shall be in this present life as S. Augustine and S. Gregorie doe vnderstand it Thus far we both are agreed vppon the fire which proueth the doctrines namely that it is not any materiall fire contrarie to that which they affirme that would haue it the fire of Purgatorie but the effectuall working of the Iustice and seueritie of God in the day of iudgement whereas we vnderstand it with S. Ambrose of the word of God accompanied with his holy spirit exercising his authoritie power in the Church And this we hold to be so much the more agreable because the triall is by nature to go before the sentence of iudgement as also for that this triall is made for the instruction of the Church by manifesting and making knowne on what side the truth standeth and therefore in this life and therefore also before the iudgment But neuerthelesse Bellarmine in all this portion of Scripture hitherto hath not found out Purgatorie About the fire from which the Teachers do saue themselues we doe especially square and disagree for therein he findeth his Purgatorie but we say vnto him that there is no apparance that from one verse to an other this fire should suffer such an alteration and chaunge in his nature as of a spirituall to become materiall and of a powerfull worke of the iudgement of God to become a reall and substantiall flame That these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe note out vnto vs a meere metaphoricall fire That seeing as he himselfe saith the question here is of the day of iudgement that therefore here is no more to doe with Purgatorie that seeing the fire of iudgement hath alreadie consumed and eaten vp the wood haye and strawe that there is not left behind any manner of thing to be burned in this no not the Author himselfe seeing that hee must by this iudgement goe presently to life or to death eternall For as concerning that Bellarmine saith he shall be saued but so as it were by fire that is to say he shall be saued prouided alwaies that he must first haue passed and gone through the fire This is the begging of the matter in question and this is to set downe for graunted the thing that is in controuersie In the end he commeth to seeke his defence from the old writers who how contrarie they are one to an other wee haue alreadie seene and it will not stand him in any seruice Chrysostome vnderstandeth by this latter fire the eternall fire and to be saued to be as much as not to be consumed in the said fire Saint Augustine and Saint Gregorie the tribulations of this life Theodoret and Oecumenius they setting of the vniuersall world on fire which shall be accomplished in the day of the last iudgement And as concerning the place which Saint Thomas alleadgeth out of Theodoret vpon this Epistle it is not to bee found either in the Greeke or Latine Copie but hee affirmeth verie well that the Teacher shall bee saued from the fire of the last iudgement which shall goe before the face of the Iudge Which saith hee will not burne the iust Alcuinus de Trinit l. 3. c. 21 Orig. hom 3. in Psal 26. but make them shine more cleare and bright Alcuinus and the ordinarie Glose doe iumpe together with the former sence Origen vnderstandeth it of Purgatorie but it is a Purgatorie of his owne deuise in that he maketh it not to be till after the last iudgement and through which both Saint Peter and Saint Paul are to passe holding that none can be free from the same but Christ himselfe no not the Diuels for by it hee holdeth that they shall be purged Ambros in Psalm And Saint Ambrose holding the same from and with him speaketh after the same sort and yet notwithstanding he addeth thereunto how that the euill Teachers shall bee for a certaine time after the last iudgement in Hell and yet in the end they shall be saued To the end saith he that it may yet turne to some profit to haue belieued in Christ But what proueth all this for our Purgatorie And what will themselues say of Gregorie Gregor l. 4. Dial. c. 39. who durst not deale or meddle with the expounding of the place If any man saith hee thinke good to vnderstand it of the fire of that Purgation which
ashamed thereof and so omitted in the twentieth Canon to which he reserued the number of feastes to speake any word of this feast which is at this day growen so famous and solemne a thing Here notwithstanding we haue two things to obserue The one is that these superstitions were not receiued all at one blow in so large a measure For in the third Synode of Toledo it is ordained That the dead shal be conueighed to the graue with singing of Psalmes onely in hope of the resurrection This was about the yeare 650. And euen at the same time when Boniface Archbishop of Mentz was sent by Pope Gregorie the third to reforme the Churches of Germanie after his fashion Hee found not any of these offeringes for the dead in the countrie but hee brought them in there by the commandement of this Gregorie And this was about the yeare 800. Carol. Mag. l. 1 c. 83. And Charles the great to represse these beginninges thought good to limit the same to the end that they might not runne on to the ruine and vndoing of inheritours and other children that were then but yong in like manner he ordained to what vse the oblations that were offered should serue namely two thirds to be giuen to the poore and one third to the Cleargie Innocent 3. in Extrauag de Presbyt non baptizato The decree of Innocent the third is not sleightly here to be passed ouer of a priest vnbaptised and yet dying in the faith of Christ whom hee affirmeth Caeleste gaudium incunctanter adeptum to haue obtained eternall life without delay or stay ordaining notwithstanding that praiers and sacrifices should be offered vp for him Where we will note two things The first that the way to heauen by purgatorie was not in his iudgement necessarie seeing that an vnbaptised priest had nothing to do there The second That the praiers for the dead do not presuppose a purgatorie seeing he ordained them for one whom he belieued affirmed to bee alreadie in Paradice And it is not to be stood vpon here that Panormitan saith that hee had obtained it Spe non re in hope but not in deed Bellarm. l. 1. de eccles Triumph c. 1. 2 For Bellarmine himselfe alleadgeth this place against those which denied that the faithfull departed did enioy the sight of God before the day of iudgement Let vs adde hereunto that in all the vigiles of the dead there is not a word mentioned of purgatorie nor yet of the fire or paines from which the dead are to be released by the diligence and carefulnesse of those that are aliue but rather there is speech laying out the miseries of this life the mercifulnesse of God repentance and reconciliation with him whiles wee are here by Iesus Christ the blessed life and the resurrection of the dead c. All of them lessons of consolation for such as are liuing who were accustomed after the death of their kinsfolkes to call the Ministers of the Church vnto their houses to spend the night with them in these holy meditations Playing the Philosophers saith Chrysost according to the word of God whereupon they were called vigils whereas they are so called now a daies though they fall to be kept at high noone The other is Resistances that these superstitions likewise were not receiued without contestation for after the sharpe contentions which were in the Church in the time of S. Augustine which wrought this effect that Purgatorie was left indifferent About the yeare 1200. as time grew on God who neuer leaueth himselfe without testimony vnto the face of the world that so he might make it inexcusable raised vp some to withstand the same in diuers places and at diuers times In the East the fift generall Councell which quenched and quite put out the fire of Purgatorie in the East Church that almost at the same time that Gregorie did blow it vp in the Latine and that after so sure a maner as that it was neuer able to recouer either heate or light since then in those Churches Nilus de purg And this appeareth by the Apologie put vp by the Greekes in the Councell of Basill and by a treatise of purgatorie made by Nilus Archb. of Thessalonica And in the West Churches the disputation held by Claudius Archbishop of Turin in the time of Lewes the Gentle against the superstitions of the Church of Rome and particularly against this same Anno 900. about the yeare 900. The lectures and publike sermons of Peter de Bruits and Henrie his successor at Tholosa who taught for the space of thirtie yeare throughout all Languedoc and Guienne That Christ was not sacrificed a new vppon the Altar in the Masse That this oblation was not offered for the saluation of soules That the Masses praiers other works of the liuing for the dead were vnprofitable foolish Petr Cluniacens l. 1. impious And these things we shuld not know how to come by to haue vnderstanding of the same but that Peter Abbot of Clugni reporteth the same vnto vs who no doubt forgot not to darken and ouershadow their doctrine so much as lay in him And it is to be noted that this Peter was in the end burned aliue and notwithstanding Henry continued aliue and tooke his place Anno 1100. This was about the yeare 1100. The bookes of Arnoldus Villanouanus a Spaniard by nation excellently learned in the languages Hebrew Greeke Latine Arabicke a great Philosopher and Diuine in which there is set downe amongst diuers others this generall Proposition That we must not either make satisfaction or offer any sacrifice for the dead This was about the yeare 1200. Anno 1200. At the same time the Waldenses in France taught That the true and onely purgatorie was in this life in the precious blood of Iesus Christ and not elsewhere That the Masses were sacriledges and not sacrifices which rob and steale away the honour due vnto the merit of our Sauior c. who after they had maintained their doctrine in many Synodes in Languedoc and Guyenne as appeareth by the very histories of the aduersaries were in the ende oppressed and borne downe by force of armes the Christian forces leuied against the Turkes and Sarasins being set on worke to do this feat And notwithstanding they were not so wholly extinguished but that their ashes sowen by the prouidence of God throughout all Europe did afterward stifle and choake these abuses of our age throughout the better part of Christendome Now when the field might seeme to be wholie left wast and emptie for the Deuill he contented not himself to walke the broad high way An exceeding great increase Questions of Purgatorie And thereupon taking purgatory for granted they begun to reason in the schools Whether the suffrages made for many together haue as much efficacie as when they are made for one alone Or els being made for one alone
dutie that is according to this sence That when God afflicteth vs it commeth well to passe for vs to haue bee it an Angell or be it a Prophet that may cause vs to vnderstand that it is for our sinnes and may exhort vs to repentance and newnesse of life to the ende that God may deale mercifully with vs. Which thing Elihu also may seeme to speake of purpose concerning himselfe and his companions to the end that Iob may take in good part their admonitions make his profit of them But in as much as they bee more freely giuen to belieue the old writers S. Ierome alleadgeth for an example of this place Esay praying vnto God for Ezechias when he was sicke For as concerning his coÌ„mentaries vpon Iob men are of opinion that they are not his And S. Gregorie expoundeth it of the Angell of the great Councel Iesus Christ the Mediator God man like vnto vs in consideration of whoÌ„ God became fauourable vnto men Where it is to be noted that in stead of Millibus both the one the other hath read it Similibus which could not be of S. Ieromes doing who vnderstood the Hebrew tong and was sufficient to trip find out the weaknes of their exposition The Glose saith This Angel it is Christ that speaketh vnto the father for vs shewing himself to him to be like vnto vs in one onely thing of a thousand that is in his humanity And his speech that is to shew himselfe a man vnto God besides whom ther is not one which is found iust Hugo in Ioh. c. 33. 2. Sam. 14. which being without sin may make intercessto for sinners c Cardinal Hugo expoundeth it after the same maner Absalom say they reconciled vnto his father Dauid might not yet come to see his face but by the meanes intercession of Ioab wherefore wee must haue a Ioab a saint of authority in heauen to draw neere vnto God for vs. And what saint wil they haue of more authoritie then the Son himselfe Eph. 5. Rom. 5. seeing by faith in him we haue accesse vnto the father to his throne of grace with all assurance boldnes Adonias also to obtain Abisaeg to wife of Salomon commendeth his sute to Bathseba Salomons mother saying with himselfe he cannot denie her any thing And so now must wee vnto the virgine Marie c. But where find they that our Lord hath diuided and giuen away any part of his royall dignitie with her And let them not run or rather rush any further forward in their Allegorie for Salomon refused to make any graunt and was also moued to wrath and indignation and that so far as that it cost his brother Adonias his life But in these things how far more sure is it for to hold our selues to Christ Heb. 7. Rom. 8. Whosaueth saith the Apostle those which come vnto God by him which maketh intercession for vs that so effectually as that none shal haue whereof to accuse much lesse to condemne vs. Ieremie Though Moyses Samuel stood before me Ieremie 15.1 yet should not my affection be moued toward this people Now in deed they might haue better a great deale drawne the contrarie consequence But the summe is that God hath forbidden Ieremie to pray for the people as hauing resolued to lay his rods vpon them their wickednesse being growne to the height And thus S. Ierome expoundeth it And to the end saith Theodoret that hee might not trke at it as though it were done by reason of him Though saith he these two were in thy roome and place yet should they not any more moue or pretaile with me Hieronym in Ietem c. 15. l. 3 in Ezech. l 5. c. 20. Theodor. in Ierem. Gregor l. 9. c. 9. Chrysost ad Thess 1. c. 1. hom 1 â—zech 14. These two saith Saint Ierome and Gregorie Who sundrie times had beene intercessors betwixt the wrath of God and the sinne of his people yea and betwixt God and his open enemies Pharao Saule c. at such times as his iudgementes were ripe and readie to fall vpon them And Hugo the Glose in like maner adding moreouer these words This is the true proper sence of this place And in deed Chrysost gathereth a cleane contrary conclusion out of this place That we are not to trust or leane vnto the praiers of Saintes but rather to finish and make sure our saluation with feare and trembling c. In Ezechieâ— there is the like place If these three men Noe Daniel and Ioab were in the midst of the Citie they should in their righteousnesse escape with their owne liues c. but as for the land it shall surely become desolate and lie wast Hee speaketh then as though they were still liuing in the world and euerie one of them in his former state and condition And so in Ieremie of Moyses and Samuel as also Saint Ierome Chrysostome and Thomas of Aquine doe expound the same vpon Ieremie and vpon Ezechiel Theodoret in these wordes Though these three persons Noe Daniel and Iob were found altogether in the midst of them c. that is that God speaketh according to the state wherein Moyses and Samuel were in this life Otherwise if they will vrge it as vnderstood of the other then I woulde haue them once againe to remember and thinke vppon their Limbe Of the same nature is that which followeth in Ezechiel Ezech. 22. I haue sought a man saith the Lord that should make vp the hedge and stand in the gappe against me for this land to the end I might not destroy it but J haue not found him that is as it is saide of Dauid a man according to mine owne heart which might stand betwixt mine anger and this people as Abraham for Sodome and Moyses for Israel Saint Ierome I haue searched for a man amongst them which could resist and withstand mine anger as Moyses Aaron and Samuel Note by the way these wordes from amongst them And yet Theodoret dealeth more plainly who expoundeth it by the place of Ieremie aboue expounded c. 5. Looke about you in your places and see if there bee any that executeth iudgement and seeketh after faith c. and I will be fauourable vnto him that is to say saith he amongst your princes your priests c. But what is there in all this that hath any thing to doe with the inuocation of Saints deceased For want of matter and proofe in the Canonicall scriptures 2. Macha c. 15. they runne in the end vnto the Apocrypha bookes Onias and Ieremie saith Iudas Machabeus appeared vnto him in a dreame praying for the estate of the people of the Iewes And seeing that they praied they may be praied vnto notwithstanding they see that in this hard distresse of theirs the Israelites did no such thing And as for the strength of this argument wee shall better examine the same elsewhere but the
repay him againe The same also which S. Paul saith What is it that thou hast which thou hast not receiued And if thou hast receiued it 1. Cor. 4.7 why boastest thou thy selfe as if thou hadst not receiued it c. And the second Councel of Orange held about the yeare 450. doth conclude in these words Mans nature Concil Arans c. Can. 19. Man a great deale lesseable after his fall euen in his integritie could not keep his integritie without the help of God c. But after he had fallen and corrupted his waies being the second state that our first father fell into we became in farre worse and harder case Man euen in his integrity could not in respect of God merite or deserue any good thing but now in the daies of his corruption hee cannot chuse but merite yea he cannot merite any thing but the wrath of God his curse and eternall death For being become sinne and transgression it hath corrupted the most noble partes both of his humane bodie and diuine soule making the will to bee the slaue of vnbridled appetite vnderstanding of imagination vnto all euill and both of them faultie and corrupted in themselues the will estranged from the loue of God and the vnderstanding from the hauing of the knowledge of him both the one and the other carried from their naturall and one onely good state to the contrarie with all their power and abilitie euen to will and know that which is displeasing vnto him and hurtfull to themselues Man now in this estate what can he doe what can he but do amisse And notwithstanding this is the state of all men in themselues since the fall no man to be excepted God pronounceth this generall sentence in Genesis Genel 6. Iob. 14. Psal 51. All the thoughtes of the heart of man are set vpon euill continually The most holy do most freely confesse it Iob Who can draw any thing that is pure from that which is defiled Not one Dauid Behold I was begotten in iniquitie and my mother hath conceiued me in sinne and therefore he prayeth vnto God to create in him a new hart Ioh. 3.6 Christ in the Gospell That which is begotten of flesh is flesh and that which is begotten of the spirit is spirit If a man be not borne againe hee cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Rom. 7.18 2. Cor. 3.5 Ephes 1. And Saint Paule expoundeth it Because that in the flesh dwelleth no good seeing that the naturall man doth not comprehend that which is of the spirite of God And because That we are naturally deadin sinnes our workes then are both dead and deadly and to bring vs to bring out any other it cannot bee without the working of a miracle Ephes 2.5 Rom. 6.8 it is requisite that wee should bee raised againe And it is God onely that must doe this Because saith he moreouer that We are children of wrath That All the desires and all the vnderstanding also of our flesh which we make so much of is enmitie against God Prou. 10. And without exception For There is no man saith Salomon that can say Rom. 5.17 1. Cor. 15. My heart is cleane I am without sinne And the Apostle more expresly All men haue sinned and are dead in Adam By a man sinne entred into the world into all men and by sinne death c. Yea into Moyses the meekest of all other men Thou hast sette before thy face Absconditum nostrum our sinne that was hidden from vs. This naturall viciousnesse which like vnto a naturall disease is hidden from vs is lesse perceiued or felt of vs. Pâ— l. 51. Psal 116. Rom. 7. 14. reâ—â— 23. And into Dauid a man according to Gods owne hearte Create saith hee in mee a new heart Because the hearte of man is altogether peruerted Ab occultis meis mundame Cleanse mee from that which is hidden from mee And into S. Paule an elect vessell of God The law saith he is spirituall and I am carnall sold vnder sinne I see a law in my members fighting against the law of my vnderstanding and leading me captiue to the law of sinne which is in my members Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from the bodie of this death c. Into S. Iohn Baptist Luke 2. the greatest amongst them that are borne of women who saith vnto our Lord I haue need to be baptized of thee that is to say to be washed to be regenerate by thy spirit c. And into the holy virgin likewise for she acknowledged her low and base estate she magnified nothing but the onely mercy of God she placed her selfe amongst them that being hungrie are filled with good things she reioyceth in God which is her Sauiour so farre is she off from disclaiming her parte in the saluation promised in Iesus Christ the author of the saluation which is in her And in deed the Apostle to the Hebr. Hebr. 7. hath not seperated or excepted from sin any besides Iesus Christ alone The holy virgine likewise was subiect to the law of purification ordained in the Church a signe of the inward purification which God requireth in all our actions Rom. 11.32 to the end that this word may abide true That God hath shut vp all vnder sinne That no man also should thinke to be excluded from that which followeth That he hath notwithstanding shewed mercie vnto all That this that all the Saints haue beene saued euen the virgin Marie her selfe commeth of his free grace of the riches and bountifulnesse of his great mercies Now our aduersaries that will not be called Pelagians How the aduersaries do extenuate originall sinne doe agree in outward shew vnto this corruption of mankind but when we come to lay the sore open and naked they are as it were afraid of taking some harme they make the maladie as light and little as they can fearing to be too much bound vnto God not considering how that for a man to lay open his wounds before him is to heale them to confesse our sinnes freely and franckly to him is to haue them quit forgiuen whereas the hiding and couering of them doth make them mortall to denie conceale or smooth them ouer is to cast himselfe prisoner and captiue into hell and eternall fire vntill hee haue paid the vttermost farthing Pighius therefore letteth not shamelesly to say Albert Pigh de peccat orig that the punishment of Adam seized vpon all his posteritie as one bond man begetteth another but that his sinne was not transfused and conueighed into his children What is there more contrarie vnto the whole scripture then this Yea how is it possible that this man should haue so little profited in the knowledge of himselfe Andradius a true interpreter of the ambiguities and doubtes arising in the Councell of Trent teacheth That concupiscence is in nature corrupted altogether such as it was when nature
haue not any reward but that which is bestowed vppon vs in our free pardon Saint Barnard saith in one word Bernard in Psal 91. Serm. 9. 15. De Sepulch Idem in Cant. Serm. 22. By faith Christ dwelleth in our harts and as for works they giue testimonie vnto our faith how that it liueth Againe The fruit of the knowledge of God is the strong crie of prayer c. Death being dead life is restored into his place in like manner sinne being taken away righteousnesse succeedeth it c. And how Because saith heâ—e in an other place they that are iustified from their sinnes desire and resolue themselues â—o embrace and follow holinesse without the which no man shall see God For they heare the Lord who cryeth Be holy c. But All these workes saith he all these pretended merits Sunt viâ—â— regni non causa regnandi They are the way to raigne but not the cause thereof But as we said before these two righteousnesses are verie much differing namely that which approueth and iustifieth our faith from that which iustifieth our selues that burning and beeing consumed at the onely appearance of the shining brightâ—nesse of the face of God this beeing of proofe against the Cannon shot of Gods wrath and Hell it selfe that being the worke of the newe man which is renued but slowly in vs this of the eternall God himselfe who hath giuen himselfe wholly and intirely vnto vs. And therefore all that righteousnesse before this is held for nothingâ— by the Apostle himselfe for worse then nothing that is for corruption and filthinesse so farre off is it from meriting any thing And this also euen with the littleâ— goodnesse that it hath in it is the gift of God and the worke of God working in our hearts by his spirit which saith vnto our pride What hast thou that thou hast not receiued That which is most rife in thee is the worke of Adam more weightie ordinarily then the rest and which concludeth against him Who can draw that which is cleane out of that which is foule and filthie c. For how should a perfect worke spring from an imperfect faith A sound fruie from a diseased tree But the case so standeth as that wee dayly crie here on earth Increase our faith strengthen it purge it from all diffidencie and distrust And notwithstanding wee admire heere the goodnesse of the mercifull God in respect of that which hee hath giuen to him whome hee hath iustified by the gift of faith and by the gift of righteousnesse hee will haue it called a reward but verily such a one as groweth due vpon free promise and not by purchase And thereupon our pride hath set in foote to build the matter of merit a word not heard of throughout the whole Scripture a word condemned throughout the whole Analogie of faith which setteth before it no other thing then the merit of Christ according to the free promise of the eternall father In the meane time where so euer there is Merces The abuse of this worde Merit Ierem. 31.16 Thom. l. 2. q. 114. art 2. a hire or reward promised of God the pride of man hath caused them to find out the merit of men Ieremie saith to the Church of the Iewes assuring them of their reestablishing They shall returne from the Countrie of the enemie Thy worke shall haue his reward From thence Thomas maketh an argument to proue their merit notwithstanding that there is properly handled the estate and condition which was to befall them in this world and not in the kingdome of heauen but hee concludeth notwithstanding that reward and merite cannot be but improperly spoken betwixt God and men betwixt whome there is no maner of equal proportion that is saith he That man obtaineth of God as in the nature of a reward it is because that he hath giuen him power and vertue to labour Quasi mercedem Hieronym in Esa l 15. c. 95. Mat. 5.22 Luke 6.23 Ambr. in Luc. l. 5. c. 6. But Saint Ierome hath spoken better alleadging this place That this reward is their inheritance which serue God In the Euangelists oftentimes Reioyce yee for great is your reward in heauen c. Ambrose verily wheresoeuer there is this word Merces interpreteth it praemium he causeth it to be attributed to the mercie of God and to be receiued by a Christian faith and in like manner all the rest as we shall see And as for that which Thomas argueth That that which is giuen according to iustice may seeme to be a condigne and worthy reward But the Apostle saith 2. Timoth. 4. Ambros in 2. Tim. c 4. Amplissima praemia The crowne of righteousnesse is reserued and laid vp in store forme which the Lord the iust Iudge will render vnto me in that day c. Verily he should haue called to mind that Saint Ambrose expounding this place saith Because that God giueth exceeding great gifts to them that loue him that is worthie of his greatnesse and not of our merits And the ordinarie Glose Seeing that faith is grace and eternall life grace it cannot be but that he hath giuen grace But Saint Augustine August in hom 50. Idem hom 14. as we shall see more largely and fully hereafter Nay saith hee Paul if he had giuen thee that which was due vnto thee he should haue bestowed punishment vpon thee c. Pardon me Apostle I doe not see any thing that is properly thine except euill and this is thine owne doctrine that thou hast taught vs That when God crowneth thy merites he crowneth nothing but his owne gifts c. And Thomas himselfe likewise may seeme to come neere to the same Thom. l. 2. q. 114. art 3. when hee saith That our workes considered as proceeding from our free will cannot merite but rather as proceeding from the grace of the holy Ghost giuen vnto vs. And in deed what man shall bee so proud as to dare to say That Abraham merited God by his workes vnder colour of those words which God saith vnto him I am thy reward Abraham saith the Apostle To whome faith was imputed for righteousnesse Now it were to be desired that the old writers had vsed this word more sparingly although their intention and drift be sufficiently cleare and manifest And whence it sprang But the truth is that that which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dignitie or worthinesse the Latines haue translated Merit and consequently that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made or reputed worthie they haue expounded mereri for want of an other verbe to expresse it in one word And in deed the old Glosarie saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mereri to bee made worthie is expounded by this word to merit And it may be verified by many places In the disputation that fell betwixt the Orthodoxes and the Donatists in the time of Saint Augustine this word was ordinarily
c. Verily saith hee this same Almightie power which turneth spiritually the bread and wine at this day into the flesh of his bodie and into the drinke of his bloud did also then inuisibly make the Manna giuen downe from heauen his bodie and the water which flowed from the rocke his bloud It is verie true in deed that our Fathers of Trent had prouided not a daintie dish but a blacke dash for the same in their Index expurgatorius ordaining of their wonted faithfulnesse and true dealing that these places should bee razed out of Bertram Index expurg p. 11. Paschas Raper decorp sang Dom. c. 5. Hug. de S. Victor in 1. Cor. q. 80. Anselm in 1. Cor. c. 10. Paschasius Rapertus Abbot of Corbie in the yeare nine hundred or there about and Hugo of Saint Victor about the yeare a thousand one hundred did teach the same though somewhat more harshly then others that haue dealt in this matter And these are the tearmes they vse Non materia sed significatione The same meate not in matter but signification Idem significantem velidem efficientem Jn as much as it signified the same thing or wrought the same effect For say they That meate was of the same efficacie with this Anselme They did eate in their Manna the same meate that we doe in our bread and drunke the same drinke of the bloud of Christ from the rocke that wee drinke from the Cup. And by that meanes did eate the same spirituall meate that wee though it were of an other bodie because they did vnderstand the visible meat spiritually hungered spiritually tasted spiritually that they might be spiritually satisfied and refreshed c. And therefore saith he it is not said The rocke signified Christ but the rocke was Christ For so the Scripture is accustomed to speake calling the things signifying by the name of those that are signified c. And thus speaketh the most part of the Schoolemen Gratian. C. Inquit C. in Illo c. 10. Thom. Aquin. in 1. Cor. c. 10. Hugo ibid. Gratian in his Decree fetcheth two expresse and euident Canons out of Saint Augustine touching this point The ordinarie Glose likwise saith They did eate Manna and drunke of the rocke c. Signes of Christ which wrought the same effect in the belieuers And this was saith it the same faith Thomas The same spirituall meate with vs but an other corporall namely the Fathers which belieued in Christ. And Cardinall Hugo verie openly The bodie of Christ the bloud of Christ and thereupon produceth the place of Saint Augustine Beleeue and thou hast eaten But some man may obiect Wherein our Sacramentes excell What is then the prerogatiue of a Christian What is there more in our Sacraments then in the old The answere is cleare and plaine the word Propheticall and Apostolicall are of one efficacie Christ is in the one and in the other equall and like vnto himselfe euerie where so farre as that our Lord speaking of the Propheticall Scriptures saith Examine them for you belieue to haue eternall life in them Thus it is with the Sacraments of the old and new people and notwithstanding the word and Sacraments of the new are not without their prerogatiues not in substance but in circumstaunce not in kind but in degree They agree in this that they shew forth promise signifie and exhibite the same communion of Christ by faith and the holy Ghost by the which the elect since the time of Adam euen to the last man vpon the earth are to be saued For without this communion there was no saluation either in the old or new people They differ for that vnder the old Testament our Fathers had this communion in Christ to come and therefore the worke of grace was the more obscure vnto thē but we haue it in Christ come in the flesh c. and therfore the same grace more bright cleare Againe they agree in that they seale vp saluation and grace to all them in generall that doe receiue them in faith They differ herein that the old ones were not properly ordained but for the posteritie of Abraham but these latter and new ones for all the nations vppon the face of the earth that are ingrafted into the Church and in the Communion of Christ in the faith of Abraham To be short they agree in that they seale vp vnto vs the couenant with the same God through the same Christ for the same reconciliation whereupon followeth the same fruite euen the remission of sinnes and eternall life They differ in this that God which hath of old spoken by his Prophets hath now vouchsafed to speake by his own Sonne in so much that wee may say with Saint Iohn That that which was from the beginning of the word of life we haue heard with our eares seene with our eyes and touched with our hands c. And wee haue also greater helpes to raise our faith vnto a further assurance of grace by how much the accomplishment is more then the promise the exhibiting of him in the flesh of more efficacie to moue vs then the expectation thereof and for that amongst the sences one is more quicke and certainely prouing then the other and that which is perceiued many waies more perswasiue then that which is comprehended but one way and that which is knowne of the goodnesse of God in the sending of his Sonne crucified before our eyes more strong to beget in vs an assurednesse of his mercie and by consequent of his loue towards vs and our inlightning with him then that which hee had spoken vnto vs by his Prophets or figured by his sacrifices in all the times that went before And yet in the meane time the old Sacraments cease not to be figures of ours as Circumcision of Baptisme and the Passe-ouer of the holy Supper But certainely antitypes rather then types and correspondent figures not bare and naked figures figures which contained the verie same thing although not in the same manner although not in the same degree of clearenesse and amplenesse Chrysost in hom Nolite ignorare And heere it is that Chrysostome his similitude taketh place The Painter saith he that goeth about to draw the counterfeit of a king layeth the first lineaments and draught therof in colours that are more darke and shadowie wherein notwithstanding is well perceiued the Kings proportion and physnomie but when he hath laid his liueliest colours and hath fully finished it in all points then it is altogether an other manner of thing Idem hom 17. in Ep. ad Haeb. and yet notwithstanding it is the same thing And this likewise is in handling the place of Saint Paul So say we of Circumcision and Baptisme the one and the other doe graft vs into the Church and seale vp vnto vs our new-birth Coloss 2. in so much as that Saint Paule calleth Baptisme Circumcision and Circumcision Baptisme When you haue put off
them from natural sense and vnderstanding to the spirit from an opinion to faith and from the earth vnto heauen c. And therfore we see not that euer the Scripture doth lead vs to obserue and marke any miracles in the signes of his Mysteries notwithstanding that it is a dutie to be most carefully discharged to publish set forth the maruailous works of the Lord in the church It teacheth vs the famous and worthie passing of the destroying Angell ouer the houses of the Israelits without touching of theÌ„ The lamb was the memoriall therof and that so cleare and euident a one as that it was called by the name of the Passouer it self In this passing ouer then ther is pointed out vnto vs a miracle namely in the difference which the Angel made betwixt the Israelits and the Egyptians and in the lambe it recoÌ„mendeth vnto vs a mysterie So likewise of Manna the rock in that the one was rained the other dissolued into water it is a miracle but in that they feed queÌ„ch the thirst of the true Israelits spiritually there lies a mystery And of the water conuerted into wine in Cana S. Iohn maketh mention vnto vs of a myracle Of Iorden turned dayly into bloud by reason of so many persons as daily confessed their sinnes and were baptised how much more famous had it beene and worthie of renowne And yet this was no myracle but a misterie Verie excellently thereforefore hath a certaine Schooleman said That wee must not looke for myracles Aegyd l. 2. examer c. 13. but where they are That where and so oft as euer we can discharge and free the holy Scriptures by the things that we naturally see that there and so oft wee ought not to haue recourse vnto the power of God nor vnto myracles Now we may free them most easily when wee vnderstand misteries mistically Sacraments Sacramentally figures figuratiuely Chrys in Ioh. c. 6. â—om 46. spiritual things spiritually c. Chrysostome saith What is it to vnderstand things carnally Simply according to the letter without conceiuing and taking any further thing to be meant and contained therein But it is requisite saith hee to consider and looke vpon all misteries with inward eyes that is to say spiritually And as we conceiue them spiritually euen so wee receiue them in like manner namely by faith For saith he Idem in c. 11. ad Hetr hom 21 Theophyl ibid. Theod. dial 1. Thoâ—â— 3. part summ q. 78. art 2. We thinke that the things that rest in hope are without substance but faith giueth them a substance and yet not as though it gaue them any thing more but because it becommeth vnto them their verie essence and being c. Theodoret The things that are misticall are spoken mistically and the things which are not knowne vnto all are openly declared Thomas likewise The word of Christ worketh effectually and Sacramentally Sacramentally that is to say saith hee according to the force of the signification CHAP. II. That the doctrine of the holy Supper must be examined by the rules aboue handled as also all that which is deliuered of all other the Sacraments as well of the old as of the new Testament NOw wee are for the most part of this mind that the rules aboue named may be practised and vsed in other Sacraments but our Aduersaries wil not agree that they are so in the explication and vnfoulding of the doctrine of the holy supper and therefore wee are consequently to see if the holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers doe tolerate and admit yea or rather necessarily presse and vrge that the doctrine of the holy supper be examined and tried by these same rules which wee reduce into a few words in these manner of tearmes That a Sacrament is a visible signe of a thing that is to say of an inuisible grace That the signe and the thing are Correlatiues and that therefore the one is not the other That the signe is giuen by the Minister or Pastour but the thing by God alone That the signe is receiued by the hand both of true belieuers and hypocrites but the thing by faith of the belieuers onely That the likenesse that is betwixt the signe and the thing hath caused the name of the one to be attributed vnto the other that is to say the name of the thing to the signe but that thereis not therfore any changing of the one into the other neither by way of myracle nor yet of any supernaturall worke c. but onely of names the more plainely to point out the mysterie That Sacraments and misteries haue one proper stile which must bee vnderstood mistically and Sacramentally c. which hath beene verified and approued in all the other Sacraments as well of the old Testament wherof the Apostle saith That our Fathers did eate the same meare and drinke the same drinke as also in Baptisme a Sacrament of the new Testament Let vs come therefore vnto the holy supper of our Lord. We belieue that in it In what sort aâ—d manner the faithfull communicate and receiue the Lordes supper the belieuer receiueth drinketh eateth not only bread and wine but also the verie flesh of Christ and the true verie bloud of Christ the flesh giuen for the life of the world the bloud shed for the remission of our sinnes That it is not more true that the bread is broken and the wine powred out or that they become nourishment vnto our bodies for the sustaining of this fraile and brittle life then it is true that the flesh of our Lord is broken and his bloud shed for vs and that they become nourishment for our soules drie and barren that they are of themselues but watered and altered by his righteousnesse to nourish them vnto eternall life Much more then whereas the bread and wine are turned into our substance by the operation of our naturall heate to bee incorporated into vs doe the flesh and bloud of our Lord by the operation of the holy Ghost incorporate vs more and more into him wee communicate his substance and in the same his life and all his benefits as members of Christ bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh to be crucified iustified sanctified and glorified in him insomuch that our heat being more strong then the bread and wine doth turne and alter them into our substance the holie Ghost being stronger and more mightier then we doth conuert and turne vs both to him and into him And by that meanes wee receiue not onely Christ really and substantially in the holy Supper celebrated according to his institution but we are wrought into one bodie more and more amongst our selues of which body he is the head and we the members the faithfull I meane that draw their spirituall life the sense motion and spirituall action of their soules from him a liuely and quickened body by his spirit one togither by him one
such sort as that they are not apparant or to bee discerned notwithstanding that they be there neither yet any manner of distinction to bee made of them by reason of their incorporation euen so are we all incorporate both amongst our selues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also with Christ for wee are not nourished and fed this man of one bodie and that man of an other but all ioyntly of one and the same These are then the two principall endes of the Sacrament euen the growth and helping forwarde of our vnitie with Christ our head and of our vnitie with the brethren which with vs doe make one body in him which cannot bee accomplished more effectually then by the remembrance of the death of Christ which stirreth vp in vs a loue towards him who hath loued vs so much as to giue himselfe to death for vs euen that death which was due and iustly belonging to sinners c. So that wee not being able either to liue or die for any his emolument or profit for what good can there arise from vs to him we are incited and stirred vp to liue and die for his body which is the Church and not to spare any thing that is in vs no not our owne bloud for the edifying of the same or for the good and saluation of our brethren either begotten of Basil de Baptis in Moral or redeemed by the same bloud And this is the cause why Saint Basill saith What profit is there in these words Take this is my body To the end that drinking and eating we may euermore bee mindfull of him which is dead and risen againe for vs Who so calleth not to mind this remembrance is said to eate vnworthily c. And in another place What is the dutie of such as eate the bread and drinke the Cup of Christ Verily saith he to keep the remembrance of him which is dead and risen againe for vs perpetually c. Seeing saith likewise S. Ambrose Ambros de iis qui myst intiantur c. 3. That the Sacrament serueth not for any vse vnto saluation without the preaching that is to say the remembrance and commemoration of the crosse of Christ. And hitherto it may be that both wee and our aduersaries are of one mind in as much as we both the one and the other say That the bodie and bloud of Christ are in the Supper celebrated according to his institution and are truly and verily drunken and eaten in the same by the faithfull members of Christ in assurance of remission of sinnes and eternall life But the difference and disagreement betwixt vs is Wherein the maine difference lyeth for that wee say that they are receiued in the supper of the Lord with the Sacraments of the bread and wine They vnder the accidents of the whitenes roundnesse c. of the bread and vnder the rednesse and moysture c. of the wine the substance therof being at the verie instant of the vttering of the words by the Priest quite vanished and become nothing that so there may be place made for the bodie and bloud yea conuerted and turned into the bodie and bloud of Christ which they call Transubstantiation Againe that wee say that the bodie and bloud of Christ the nourishment of our soule which is spirituall are communicated with vs by the efficacie and power of the spirit of God and receiued of vs in like manner spiritually and by faith They that they are giuen by the hand of the Priest vnder the accidents of bread and wine and conuerted into flesh bloud by the pronouncing of the words which they call Sacramentall receiued into the mouth and swallowed downe into the stomack corporally and really c. and that not of the faithfull onely but of all both good and bad which receiue them c. So that the question or controuersie betwixt vs is not Whether there be a communicating of the body and bloud of Christ in the holy supper but How And this How is not raised by vs It proceedeth of the curiosity of our aduersaries neither yet by our incredulitie or curiositie but by our aduersaries who in stead of resting themselues in the simplicitie of the old writers haue so curiously pried into the same as that they haue wrapt themselues in an infinite sort of absurdities thereby causing doubts to arise yea and doubting themselues also of If in stead of making it plaine vnto themselues and others of the manner How Verily Saint Cyprian saith That it is an Apostolike thing and appertaining to the sinceritie of the truth to declare how the bread wine are the flesh bloud of our Lord. Saint Augustine likewise feareth not to demaund How the bread is made the bodie of Christ seeing that our Lord in the day of the Ascention caried vp his bodie into heauen But he hath also giuen vs rules by which these kinds of speeches ought to be expounded But this holy scanning and sifting out of the truth is verie farre from the prophane curiositie of our aduersaries they seeke the deciding of the matter in the nature of the Sacraments by comparing of Scripture with Scripture and by the analogie of faith and of the Creed according to the true and vndoubted rules of Diuinitie but these our aduersaries by destroying of the Sacraments the nature of Christ and the Articles of our faith our onely Diuinitie by destroying also the Lawes which God hath set in nature by a false kind of Philosophie So deeply haue they delighted and rooted themselues in an opinion contrarie to faith in the flesh which profiteth nothing contrarie to the word which is spirit and life and in the letter which is dead and killeth contrarie to the spirit which is liuing and quickning They say The literall sence neither can nor ought to be followed alwayes what is there any thing more cleare or plaine This is my bodie this is my bloud But againe is there any thing more plaine The rocke was Christ And of circumcision This is my couenant Againe The Lambe is the Passeouer These bones are the house of Israell Iohn is Elias I am the true Vine I am the bread of life which came downe from heauen c. And if the plainnesse and clearenesse of places should bee tied vnto the words and not to the sence and meaning then what clearer places can there possibly be then these Let vs make man according to our owne image and similitude And the Anthropomorphites haue heereupon concluded that God hath the shape of a man Genes 1. Luke 22 Who so hath not a sword let him sell his Coate and buy one And what then saith Origen Shall the Bishops put their hand to the sword thereupon I and my Father are one And Sabellius hath concluded thereupon that the Father hath suffered in the flesh I am the bread of life August de ciuit Dei l. 21. c. 25. he that shall eate this
man as that we destroy and take away the veritie of the body For it is no good consequent that all that which is in God Idem in Iohn tract 78. is euerie where as God is c. And in an other place vppon these words Vado Venio ad vos He went saith he as man he staied behind in as much as he was God hee went in as much as he was but in one place he staied and abode still in as much as he was euerie where Againe Idem de verb. Dom. Serm. 60. de Tem. Serm. 40. It is expedient for you that I goe although saith he that he bee alwaies with vs by his Diainitie But and if hee had not gone away from vs corporally we should haue seene him daily with these carnall eyes and should neuer haue belieued in him spiritually c. And for this cause hee hath absented himselfe in body from all the Church to the end that faith might bee edified and builded vp Cyril Alex. in Ioh. 9. c. 21. l. 10. c. 39. S. Cyrill It is meete that all the faithfull belieue that howsoeuer our Lord bee absent in body yet he is present by his power to all them that loue him c. And reciprocally no man doubteth seeing he is ascended into heauen but that he is absent in the flesh though present in body c. What is this then I will not leaue you comfortlesse That is how that after he is ascended into heauen risen from the dead Idem l. 6. dial de Trinit he is in vs by his spirit c. And againe what is the meaning of this I am in the midst of two or three assembled in my name Verily saith he when as man he was conuersant here vpon earth he filled notwithstanding the heauens not leauing therfore the companie of the Angels And on the otherside likewise where as now he is in hraue Idem l. 11. c. 3. li. de Incarn c. 21. Fulgent ad Thrasimund l 2. he ceaseth not to fil the earth with his power c. He appeared for vs on high before the father and he ceaseth not to dwel here below in the Saints by his spirit c. being absent according to his humanitie but present according to his Diuinitie Fulgentius One and the same Christ saith he is a locall man that is to say tied to one place in as much as he was borne a man that is to say of the Virgine and notwithstanding God infinite that is to say without limitation of place measure or bounds in as much as he is of the Father according to his humane nature absent from heauen when he was vpon earth and leauing the earth when he ascended into heauen according to his diuine nature notwithstanding not leauing the heauens when hee descended nor the earth when he ascended into heauen Vigil l. 1. cont Eutych c. Vigilius B. of Trent It is expedient for you saith he that I goe c. And how will he goe saith he vnto the father who neuer is from him He which is all in all with the father and of whome all things are full c. But saith he This is because he caried out of this world his humane nature which he had taken of vs c. He is then gone from vs according to this humanitie but in respect of his Diuinitie hee saith vnto vs I am with you vnto the end of the world Idem l. 4. But againe now the daies will come that you shall desire to see the Sonne of man and shall not see him c. Verily because he is after a certaine manner both absent from vs and present with vs By the forme of a seruant which he carried from vs into heauen he is absent from vs and by the forme of God which remoueth not from vs here on earth hee is present with vs Circumscribi loco and so by this meanes he but one the same becommeth present with vs and absent from vs c. But seeing saith he that the word is euery where wherefore is not the flesh also euery where These certainly are things very diuers different to be limited bounded within one place and to be euery where The Son of God had a beginning as cōcerning the nature of his flesh but he had not any if you consider the nature of his diuinitie In regard of that he is a creature but in regard of this the Creator In respect of that he is a subiect to be contained in one place but in respect of this it is not possible for him to be contained in any place c. And this is the Catholike faith fession which the Apostles haue deliuered vnto vs which the Martyrs haue confirmed and ratified and which the faithfull haue conserued and maintained euen vnto this present c. And that in such sort that although the founders of Transubstantiation haue laide such doctrines as are contrarie to the succeeding ages Bed in hom Paschah Bernard in 1◠Serm. de Caen. Dom. serm 6.9.10 Hugo part 8. c 13. memit theol Cyril 9. in Io. c. 21. yet this foundation hath alwaies remained firme In Beda Christ ascending vp to heauen after the resurrection left his Disciples corporally how be it the presence of his diuine maiestie did neuer leaue them In S. Bernard I goe from you saith the Lord according to my humanitie but I do not goe away from you according to my Diuinitie I leaue you without my corporall presence but J arde and assist you with the presence of my spirit And thus haue all the old Schoolemen spoken so farre as that he which hath said otherwise hath beene reputed for an Eutichian or Nestorian according to the saying of S. Cyrill Ne quis in duos filios Christum diuidere auderet To the end that no man might be so bold as to diuide Christ into two Sonnes c. And of such like places a man might make vp a whole volume But followeth it that to the end it may retaine the humane nature that the bodie of Christ must needes bee bounded and made subiect to one certaine place What other thing is it that all these Doctors haue said in their making of it a locall and circumscriptible bodie and subiect to locall motions c. S. Ambrose saith Ambros Ep. 22. l. de Incarn Domini de spir sanct There was in Christ the same truth of body that is in vs. Againe Euerie creature is bounded within certaine limits of his nature and that that hath not a bounded and limited power cannot be called a creature If then thou consider the Son of man as man why doest thou not leaue him that which belongeth vnto man If as a creature for so we call him according to the phrase of antiquitie in as much as hee is man what doest thou cal in question his circumscriptiblenes if thou be not purposely minded to
disciples chaunged not in his figure but in his nature by the omnipotencie of the worde is made flesh They stand and pitch themselues vppon the worde Nature as if it were a substance and not a propertie and vpon these wordes Is made flesh whereas they ought to remember themselues that this is contrarie to their owne doctrine that the bread should be made flesh but this matter shall bee made more cleare hereafter As in the person of Christ saith hee the humanitie was to bee seene but the diuinitie did conceale and hide it selfe so into the visible Sacrament there is infused by an vnspeakeable manner the diuine essence The diuine essence saith hee and not the humane nature the spirit then and not the flesh And this vniting of the signe and thing doth not proceed saith he to the consubstantiating of Christ that is to say to the making of him the same substancet but vsque ad societatem germanissimam eius but to a most strict and neere bond of societie And then not to the working of any consubstantiation neither yet transubstantiation but to a sacramentall vnion which exhibiteth to euerie faithfull receiuer grace with the thing the spirit with the flesh the heauenly with the earthly c. so straitly linked as that The thinges signifying and signified as hee saith in another place haue the same names Bed in Oct. Epiphan Cyril in Ioh. l. 2. c. 4. Ambros de iis 〈◊〉 myster 〈◊〉 c. 4. 9. â—â—sil de spir â—â—ct c. 15. â—â—m 6. According to that which Beda said a long time after him That the nature of the bread and wine is translated into the Sacrament of the flesh and bloud of Christ by the vnspeakeable sanctification of the holy Ghost And so speaketh Cyrill of the water in baptisme That it is reformed and as it were moulded againe by the operation of the holy Ghost into a diuine nature And Saint Ambrose I know not therein the vse of nature but the excellencie of grace And thus they all agree that there is no transubstantiation in the water of Baptisme except as saith Basill Ex presentia spiritus by the presence of the spirite And Saint Ambrose By the preaching of the crosse of our Lord c. And if as yet we stand in doubt of his intent and purpose The Maister himselfe saith hee hath declared it These words are spirit and life the carnall sences cannot pearce thereinto if faith come not therevnto Christ calleth sometimes the Sacrament that is to say the signe his bodie sometimes his flesh and his bloud sometimes bread c. Bread in respect of the resemblance it hath in nourishing Bloud by reason of the quickning effect Flesh in regard of the properties of his humanitie which he tooke vppon him c. Namely for as much as common bread changed into flesh and bloud procureth life the growth of our bodies by the which effect so ordinarie vnto vs the infirmitie of our faith is holpen and taught by sensible argument that in the visible Sacramentes is shadowed out and assured vnto vs the effect of eternall life and that wee are not so much vnited vnto Christ by any corporall passing of his bodie into ours as by the spiritual And he expresseth this coniunction diuers waies It mingleth not saith he the persons it vniteth not substances it associateth affections linketh wils together Our Maister saith he hath taught vs to care the flesh and to drinke the blood and that by abiding in him this abode is an eating this dwelling in him is a feeding this drinking is an incorporation this incorporation is an vniting of willes and affections vnto his obedience As meate is to the flesh euen so is faith vnto the soule the worde vnto the spirite c. And therefore wee doe not sharpen our teeth to eate but with a sincere faith wee breake the holy bread and distribute it wee distinguish and put difference betwixt the diuine and humane nature and notwithstanding we ioyne them together confessing one onely God and man as also being made his bodie wee are coupled and vnited vnto him both by the Sacrament as also by the thing of the Sacrament c. And to conclude Ambros in serâ—â— de Chrismat In this table saith he whereat our Lord made his last feast with his Apostles he gaue vnto them with his owne handes the bread and the wine but hee deliuered his bodie into the handes of the soldiers to be pearced through vpon the crosse to the end that the true sinceritie and sincere truth being the more deepely imprinted in the Apostles they might declare vnto the Gentils how the wine and the bread are the flesh and the bloud and by what manner of meanes the causes agree with the effects the diuers names or kindes are reduced to one the same essence and the signifying and signified thinges are called by the same names Censentur iisdem vocabulis shewing thereby that the bread and wine distributed in the holy supper tooke their effect from the bodie deliuered ouer to the soldiers to bee crucified according to that which our Lord said in giuing the bread This is my bodie that is deliuered for you There falleth into this time the first Nicence Councell out of which The Councel of Nice Ex Bibiotheca Vatiana procured out of the Popes librarie there is one that citeth this Canon In this diuine table let vs not be tied here below vnto the bread and wine set before vs but lifting vp our vnderstandinges let vs know by faith that the lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world is set vpon this table offered by the Ministers without any offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that wee receiuing truely his precious bodie bloud doe belieue that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the badges markes or ensignes of our resurrection And this is the cause why wee take not much but a little that we may know that it is not for to fill our bodies but to sanctifie vs. This Canon is intituled Of the holy Table and of the mysterie of the bodie and blood of our Lord which is celebrated in the same Now the holy Table is the holy Supper which consisteth of the signe and grace wherein heauen and earth are ioyned and coupled together and againe euerie mysterie must bee mystically expounded In this table then saith he that is to say in the holy supper we haue bread and a cuppe But let vs not saith he settle our eyes thereupon It is too base a thing for the faithfull but let vs haue our mindes and spirites carried vp on high that is to say from the signes to the grace and from the minister to God Vpon the materiall Table wee see nothing but bread and a cup and the bread truely bread a cup and that truely a cuppe but vppon the table of the Lord that is to say in the holy supper wee are to exercise our
vnderstanding by faith that is to say not to see but to belieue That the lambe which taketh away the sinnes of the worlde is there offered is there eaten Offered saith he without being offered that is to say as the Canon expoundeth it selfe mystically for the Table is mysticall C. iteratur C. Hoc est D. 2. de consecr Non rei veritate sed significante mysterio And therefore eaten without being eaten and yet truely sacrificed and truely eaten in asmuch as wee beleeue and call to minde there that hee hath beene sacrificed for vs in as much also as we are certaine that we are partakers of this sacrifice which is ours that his flesh is our meate vnto our resurrection vnto eternall life for he hath said vnto vs that he hath giuen it for vs. The Councell therefore hath saide truely because there is nothing more true then the promise of God nothing more certaine then his effect when it is receiued in faith and notiwthstanding that the bread and the wine are but tokens or signes to the ende that following the exhortation accustomed in the olde liturgies Sursum corda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life vp your harts on high c. We may waite and looke for the receiuing of our spirituall food at the hand of God and not at the hand of man yea we lift them vp verie high and farre aboue these signes and this table before which if the doctrine of our aduersaries at that time had had any place the Councel should haue said vnto vs as they say at this day Cast your selues downe before this table settle and fixe your eyes vpon your God that descendeth commeth downe vpon it see that you kneele downe vnto and worship him there Saint Athanasius which was of this time Athanas de verbo quicunque dixcrit c. will manifest and make cleare the purpose of this Councell I haue seene saith hee the like Character in the Gospell of Saint Iohn where the Lorde entreating of the cating of his bodie and seeing that manie were offended thereat speake in this sorte Doth this thing offend you what will you say then if you see the Sonne of man ascend and go vp to the place where he was afore time It is the spirite which quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing c. For hee hath spoken here of the one and the other of his flesh and of his spirite and hath distinguished the spirite from the flesh to the and that beleeuing not onely that which appeareth vnto the eyes but the inuisible nature also wee might learne that the thinges which hee spoke are not carnall but spirituall Where wee shall marke that hee expoundeth these wordes of the Councell Let vs not settle our minds vpon the signes set before vs but let vs vnderstand and know by faith c. By these That we beleeue not that onely which appeareth vnto the eies c. Hee addeth For to what an infinit multitude of men should his bodie haue become sufficient meate being ordained to bee the foode of all the world shewing thereby that wee must alwaies iudge and make accompt of the bodie of Christ as of a true bodie And in this sence the Councell said This is the cause why wee receiue in a small quantitie c. Seeing the scope and drift of the action is the sanctification of the spirite and not the filling of the bodie And afterward And therefore he made mention of his ascention into heauen thereby to draw them backe from vnderstanding of him corporally and to the end that from thence forwarde they might learne that the flesh whereof he had spoken was a heauenly and spirituall meate which hee must giâ—e them from aboue Whereby wee learne that this eating must in such sorte bee vnderstoode as that it euermore include the truth of Christes bodie and of his locall ascention For saith he that which I haue spoken vnto you is spirit and life as if he said This bodie which is shewed and giuen for the world shall bee giuen for meate to bee attributed to euerie one spiritually and to be made vnto them a defensatiue and preseruatiue vnto the resurrection of eternall life Setting against the badges and notes which the Councell had spoken of the spirituall distribution of this celestiall meate that is to say the thing it selfe And this is the cause why in another place he calleth it The mysticall table as the Councell The holy Table At which saith he Who so is partaker doth enter into the companie of God that is such as receiue the thing signified by the Sacrament that is to say the inward grace The thing then contrarie to the doctrine of our aduersaries is not receiued by the wicked and vngodly as those that neuer come in the company of God neither then is it receiued by the hand either of the faithfull or of the minister incorporated with the signe c. For as concerning the place that Bellarmine alleadgeth of Athanasius Thedor dial 2 ex orat Athan. de fide cited by Theodoret where he saith That it is saide of the true bodie Sit thou at my right hande Likewise This is my bodie which is deliuered for you and that by this bodie he was made our high priest c. It is to good purpose against those hereticks that denie the truth of the humane nature of our Lord but not against vs as also it is still to this day against the maisters of transubstantiation which destroy the same S. Hillarie In C. Corpus Christi de consecrat d. 2. Bishop of Poictiers of the same time cited by Gratian The bodie of Christ which is taken from the Altar is a figure in that the bread and wine are seene outwardly but truth in that the bodie and blood of Christ are receiued inwardly in truth Others attribute this to Hillarie Bishop of Rome Againe We doe verily receiue vnder a mysterie the flesh of his bodie and therefore we shall be one with him And To the end that he may be belieued to be in vs by the mysterie of the Sacraments And againe There is no place to doubt of the truth of the bodie and blood of Christ for both by the profession of our Lorde himselfe and by our faith it is truelie flesh and truely blood which being eaten and drunken doe bring to passe that Christ is in vs and we in him Now wee are to note the figure opposed and set against the truth the mysterie against the reall presence the profession of our Lord ioyntly with our own faith for the making of vs partakers of this truth being the effect which followeth of the coniunction of the partakers of this truth with Christ from which coniunction the wicked are excluded and therefore also from the receiuing of this truth Hilar. in Mat. c. 30. l. 8. de Trinitate which is accomplished by faith therefore the reall chaunge can take no place there And in
deed elsewhere he saith plainly That Iudas did not sup with our Lord For saith he he could not drink there with him which should not drinke with him in his kingdome seeing that he promised to al theÌ„ that drunk then of the fruit of this vine that they should drinke afterward with him The same that S. Clement hath said vnto vs before from the report of the Apostles Note of the fruit of this Vine not of the accidents of wine not of the bloud of Christ really but Sacramentally But they obiect a place vnto vs wherein I heartily wish more conscience in them and vnto the Reader that he would take the pains to reade it through for the better obseruing of the rule of this same Doctor therein That the things which are said must bee vnderstood by the causes that moued and procured such things to be said So saith he the word was truely made flesh Idem ibid. and we as verily and truly doe receiue the word flesh by the meate of the Lord How can we but iudge that he abideth naturally in vs Where they vnderstand by Cibum Dominiâ— The meate of the Lord the Eucharist and by abiding or dwelling naturally in vs to receiue the bodie of Christ really at our mouthes And these are the points which we are to examine Saint Hillarie dealeth here against the Arrians The Father saith S. Hillarie and the Sonne are one Euen so said they but yet so one as we are one with Christ Now that we are one with Christ it is of his free will not of our nature and in will not in nature the Father and the Sonne are also one Saint Hillarie then to proue vnto them that the Father and the Sonne were one in nature proueth vnto them that we are one in nature with Christ and he handleth it after this sort First that there is the same humane nature in Christ and in vs by the incarnation of the Sonne of God which he calleth the Sacrament of perfect vnitie the Sacrament of flesh and bloud and by which Naturalis communionis propriet as nobis indulgetur The propertie of the naturall communion is giuen vnto vs by our Lord Vsing the word Sacrament for the Mysterie in the worke of the incarnation as it is his ordinarie vse to doe a manner of speech verie familiar at that time as we reade in the conference betwixt the Catholiks and Donatists where Marcelline who did sit as President and chiefe Iudge for the Emperour Honorius doth sweare By the misterie of the Trinitie and by the Sacrament of the Lords incarnation c. In the second place that besides this nature which the faithfull and vnfaithfull are alike partakers of with our Lord there is a special and more particular coniunction which is wrought by the spirit of Christ dwelling in the faithfull which regenerateth quickneth sanctifieth maketh them conformable vnto him and transformeth them into him for proofe whereof he alleadgeth the 6.14 and 17. of S. Iohn which our aduersaries will not denie to belong to the spirituall eating of the faithfull onely And this he maketh more cleare when hee addeth that the cause of our life is by Christ dwelling naturally in vs by his fleshe vniting vs vnto himselfe and by himselfe vnto God the father That Christ is in vs by the truth of his nature that hee dwelleth in vs naturally we being made by this most strait bond of vnion flesh of his flesh sucking our life from his spirit And this he further declareth by sundrie sorts of speeches tending all to one sence and meaning That we communicate his flesh To mingle in vs the nature of his flesh To be naturally in vs and we in him And this our aduersaries themselues wil confesse that it cannot be said of the vngodly and by consequent that it cannot appertaine to the Sacramentall or orall eating that is to say to the eating of the mouth Ad hereunto that he which saith that he is naturally in vs saith also Hilar. de Trinit l. 8. That we are naturally in him But naturally we are not in him as being in him carnally or really but as grafted by faith into his body so neither is Christ by this argument carnally and corporally in vs. Thirdly he alleadgeth vnto vs as a testimonie of his holy vnion the supper of our Lord when he saith that we receiue verily and truely the word flesh Cibo Dominico By the meate of the Lord that is to say the flesh of the word the word incarnate the flesh of the Sonne of God by the instrument of the bread of the Eucharist that is because it is a Sacrament exhibiting this flesh exhibiting the grace represented by the signe which consisteth in this vniting of vs with Christ The same which he calleth Sub mysterio Christi carnem sumere To receiue the flesh of Christ in a misterie that is to say signified in this misticall pledge And thus all this maketh nothing for the matter of bread or the Indiuiduum vagum transubstantiated into the body For otherwise it would fall out that throughout all Saint Hillarie his discourse Christ should be auouched and taught to abide in the bread naturally and corporally And if corporally and naturally then verily contrarie to the nature and properties of a body yea contrarie to the coÌ„dition of those which S. Hillarie acknowledgeth to be in the body of Christ For saith he in an other place He taketh away the foolish sottish rashnesse of some who contend that our Lord was seene in the flesh Idem in Psal 137. in the shape of a counterfeit body c. Not remembring themselues that after the Resurrection of the body it was said to the Apostles who thought it had beene a spirit See my hands my feet c. And by a false or counterfeit body he meaneth one that hath not all the ordinarie conditions of a body For in an other place expounding these words The Sonne of man which is in heauen c. hee euidently putteth difference betwixt the natures in Christ Idem de Trinit l. 10. Idem in Psal 1â—4 l. 8. de Trinit by finite and infinite being in one place and being euerie where c. That he is the Sonne of man saith he it is of the birth and bringing forth of that flesh which he tooke of the Virgine That he is in heauen and yet neuerthelesse vpon earth it is through the power of that nature which abideth for euer Againe Hee is present to them which call vpon him faithfully but by his diuine nature and spirit that pearceth and containeth all things He is in vs but we haue to vnderstand that this is by the holy Ghost c. And after the same manner hee expoundeth the place I am with you vnto the end of the world c. And thus wee are come without any Transubstantiation or doctrine comming neere therunto euen to the time of the first generall
the carrion shall bee Idem hom 24. in 1. Cor. c. 10. thither will the Eagles resort The Eagles saith he to shew that it greatly standeth him vpon that wil come neere to this body to pitch his flight in the highest and loftiest degree and that he haue nothing to doe with the earth that he looke vp vnto behold the Sun of righteousnes And that he haue the eye of his vnderstanding verie quicke and sharpe sighted for this table is a table for Eagles to feed vpon and not the Crowes They are to thinke saith he in an other place Idem hom 60. ad Pop. Antioch Idem in Psal 144.133 in Mat. hom 7. 90. Idem in Ep. ad Caesar Monach Idem in oper impers hom 11. in Iohan. That they taste and feed on him that is set on high worshipped of Angels They are to rise vp to the gates of heauen to looke vpon him he filleth the spirit not the belly He distributeth the holy things vnto them that are holy Thou maiest imbrace him but it must be with a pure conscience touch him but by rising in thy spirit soaring aboue the heauens But what is there in all this that maketh for the transubstantiators In the Epistle to Caesarius ther is a doubt put yet it is an old one The bread saith he before it be sanctified is called by vs bread but after that it is sanctified by the grace of God c. it is thoght worthy to be called by the name of the body of our Lord notwithstanding that the nature of bread doe still abide in it c. And in an other place If it be daungerous to conuert sanctified vessels to priuate vses there being not in them the verie bodie of Christ but the misterie of his body then how much more the vessels of our bodies which God hath prepared for his owne habitation c. Whether Chrysostome Maximinus or some other were the Author of this booke so it is that he speaketh as was then the vse and custome and according to the faith receiued in the Church For as concerning that which Bellarmine saith that a certaine disciple of Berengarius did insert it it is as easie for vs to denie as it is hard and difficult for him to proue Saint Ierome speaketh not any otherwise Hieronym in Mat. 26. After saith hee that the Passeouer was accomplished and the flesh of the Lambe eaten with the Apostles he tooke bread which comforteth the heart of man and passeth forward to the Sacrament of the true Passeouer to the end that as Melchisedec Gods high Priest offering for a presiguration of him had done he also might represent the truth of his body Bellarmine laboureth in this place to turne represent into present or offer Idem ad Hedâ—â— but S. Ierome will expound himselfe If saith he the bread which is come downe from heauen be the body of Christ and the wine his bloud shed for manye for the remission of sins c. let vs ascend with the Lord into this great hall c. and let vs receiue of him there on high the cup of the new Testament and there celebrating with him the Passe-ouer let vs bee drunken with him with the wine of sobrietie c. Then it is here below that it doth represent him and on high that it presenteth and offereth him They replie If saith he The bread which he brake and gaue to his Disciples be the body of our Sauior then our Lord himselfe est conuina conuiuium both the guest and the feast he which eateth he which is eaten c. Not verily after the letter for Belarmine would be loth to blame S. Ierome of heresie and this is their heresie That the bread may be the body of Christ And therefore in a mysterie Idem in 1. Cor c. 11. in a figure for a remembrance for a pledge c. And he himselfe also doth vse al these words Hee tooke the bread saith hee and blessing it as he should suffer left it to vs for his last remembrance as he which goeth into strange countries leaueth some one or other token of remembrance with his friend c. which he can hardly looke vpon without weeping And this is in handling the matter of the supper Idem aduers Ioum. l. 2. C. de hac quidem de Consecr D. 2. In an other place He offered wine for a figure of his bloud c. for a figure of his Passion to approue the truth of his body And vpon Leuiticus Of this oblation saith he which is maruelously made for a remembrance of Christ it is permitted to eate but it is not permitted to any according to his own sence to eate of that which Christ hath offered vpon the Altar of the Crosse What becoÌ„meth then of that which they say that the very same is taken in of men at their mouthes And what distinction shall it be possible for S. Ierome to make therein But that that that is to say the Sacrament is taken and receiued with the mouth but this that is the thing is receiued by faith And this is the same that he saith in an other place In Ep. ad Hedâ—â—t In Eccles c. 3 Idem in 1. Cor 11. In Esa c 66. That all those that haue put on Christ in Baptisme doe eate the bread of Angels that we are fed with his flesh both in the Sacraments as also in the Scriptures That they which haue had the same in such sort as to bee fed therewith must haue a cleane and a new spirit Comparing the receiuing of Christ in the supper with that receiuing of him which is in Baptisme and in the word Againe That the flesh of Christ is vnderstood two waies Either spiritually and diuinely whereof it is said My flesh is truely meate c. Or for that which was crucified and pearced with the Souldiers speare That then is the Sacramentall that is to say the Eucharisticall bread so called for the straite vnion of the Sacrament and the thing c. And this the real into which we are grafted and implanted by the vertue of the holy Ghost crucified in it to be glorified with it c. For as for that which our aduersaries say that that is his flesh which cannot suffer and this his flesh that is subiect to suffering they should remember themselues how that this is spoken many ages after our Lords glorification whose flesh as they themselues hold cannot any more become subiect to suffering S. Idem ad Eph. c. August q. â—7 In Leuâ—t ad Eund cont Maxim l. 3. c. 22. Idem Ep. 23. ad Boâ—â—â—ac Augustine commeth We haue seene his Maximes heretofore as so many preparatiues to the deciding of this matter Hee said vnto vs The fathers haue eaten the same meate that we in the Sacraments and he gaue vs the holy supper for an example Againe The signes of eatimes
take the name of the things signified the Doue of the holy Ghost the rocke of Christ c. He also giueth vs now the holy supper for an example As saith hee secundam quendam modum After a certaine manner the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ is the bodie of Christ and the Sacrament of his bloud the bloud so the Sacrament of faith is saith Note After a certaine manner that is to saye Per modum Sacramenti suo modo sub mysterio in manner of a Sacrament sacramentally vnder a mysterie If it had beene reallie hee would not haue so spoken And this is according to that which he saith in another place That in the sacraments men are to regard not what they are Idem cont Maxim Ep. l. 3 c. 22. but what they demonstrate and signifie because they are one thing and do signifie another Then they are alwaies the same that they are for to signifie another thing that which they are doth not vanish neither become any other thing And hereof hee taketh for example in S. Iohn The spirit water bloud 1. Ioh. 5.8 And this is the cause why he admonisheth vs heretofore to look wel to our selues beware that we take not the signes for the things signified that in the matter of Baptisme of the Lords Supper which he toucheth expressely by name saying Wherein we must obserue what they haue relation vnto August de doctr Christ l. 3 c. 5. 9. the more to reuerence them not with a carnall seruice but with a spirituall libertie But seeing that we could alleadge bring to this purpose all S. Augustine we will content our selues to stand vpon those places that seeme most proper comming neerest to the purpose Idem cont Admi. c. 12. in Psal 3. In senten Prosper aswell for the one part as for the other The Lord saith he hath not doubted to say This is my bodie in giuing the signe of his bodie He admitteth Iudas to the feast wherein he recommēdeth to his disciples the figure of his bodie and bloud The heauenly bread which is the flesh of Christ is called suo modo after his maner the bodie of Christ although in deed it be but the sacrament of that bodie which was nailed vpon the crosse c. Not saith he by the truth of the truth of the thing but by a signifying mysterie And to children August in ser ad infantes That which you haue seene is the bread the cup your eies declare the same but that which your faith which is to be instructed demandeth the bread is the bodie of Christ the cup is his bloud And this notwithstanding is the Proposition which our aduersaries do so deeply condemne You wil say yea but we know wel enough from whence he tooke his flesh c. He was crucified c. He sitteth now at the right hand of the father c. How thē is the bread his bodie the wine his blood These things brethrē are called sacraments because that in them one thing is seene another vnderstood that which is seen hath a corporal figure that which is vnderstood hath a spiritual fruite c. Wilt thou vnderstand what this bodie of Christ is Listen giue eare to the Apostle saying to the faithfull you are the bodie and members of Christ c. And to communicate thereat Idem de doctr Christ l. 3. c. 26. Idem in Ioh. tract 25. 26. to eate the same what shall we prepare for our selues Not the teeth saith he the bellie Prepare the hart not the mouth beleeue and thou hast eaten To beleeue in him that is to eate the bread of life that is to eate with the hart not to grinde with the teeth He that beleeueth in him eateth him he is inuisiblie fatted seeing also that he is inuisibly borne again let vs alwaies note how he compareth eating with regeneration then is the bodie and bloud of Christ life vnto euery one Idem de verb. Domini in Luc. Serm. 33. Idem de verb. Apostol Scrm. 2. Idem de Trin. l. 3. c. 10. when that which is taken visiblie in the sacrament is eaten drunk spiritually in the truth of the thing c. To eate that is to be made againe but thou art made againe by making that againe which is not wanting in thee Eate life drinke life thou shalt haue life euē that life which ceaseth not to be wholly vpright And yet he saith in another place That the bread that is ordained for this action is consumed in the receiuing of the Sacrament This bread then that is receiued in the holy Supper is not that life this bread is nothing els but the Sacrament And again This bread is eaten of many which do not eat life Life then lieth not in this bread it is from elsewhere according to that which he saith He in whom Christ dwelleth not eateth him not Idem in Iohn tract 26. notwithstanding that he do shut vp within his teeth the sacrament c. but rather he eateth his owne iudgement because of his rash presuming to approch vnto the Sacraments of Christ being vncleane Which thing we haue sufficiently handled before Thus saith he That the Christian soule heareth not in vain Sursum corda Idem Ep. 1 56. let your harts beset on high neither doth it answere in vaine That it hath it in the Lord. These were the words vsual in the seruice preparatiues to the receiuing of the Sacrament Idem Serm. 152. de Temp. contr Faust l. 33. c. 8. Idem in Ioh. tract 50. Idem de verb. Domin in Luc. Serm. 18. 33. 64. Hee toucheth Christ that beleeueth in Christ He is come neere vnto not with the flesh but with the hart not by anie bodily presence but by the power of faith send faith thou hast hold of him Thou canst not look for him any more at hand for he is in heauen look for him by faith c. It is not that which is seene that nourisheth but that which is beleeued This is not that bread which goeth into the body but the bread of eternal life that sustaineth our soule Our eies are fed with the light the eye of our hart with God neither can the multitude of eies diminish or make him lesse In like maner of Christ in the supper If ther were great prouisiō store of meat allowed thee for thy dinner thou wouldest prepare and make readie thy bellie Thou art allowed thou art esteemed of God prepare thy soule Now so many places so plaine and many more in the places from whence these are taken shall they be deluded and defeated by some pettie and friuolous distinction They obiect these words in S. Augustine Christ was caried in his owne hand when hee saith recommending his body vnto his Disciples This is my body Let them put thereto that which is said afterward
to morrow c. And this is to bee noted against hereafter and for that there bee some that alleadge it vnder the name of Origen And that the effect thereof is the dwelling of Christ in vs by his spirit But saith hee he entreth into vs by faith Theodoret Theodor. dial 1. who was present at the Councel of Ephesus and Chalcedon decideth this question dealing against the Eutichians saying Our Lord giuing the misteries called the bread body and the wine wherein the sop had beene dipped bloud Then the Orthodoxe brought in in that Dialogue yeeldeth a reason to the Erranist that is to him that disputed with him and maintained the errour saying Verily hee chaunged the names giuing to the body the name of the signe and to the signe the name of the body And that in the same manner that he called himselfe a Vine he called the signe bloud And againe hee giueth the reason To the end saith he that they which are partakers of the diuine misteries doe not rest themselues vppon the nature of things which are seene but that because of the chaunge of the names they belieue the chaunge which is wrought by grace For he that calleth his naturall body corne and bread c. hath honoured the visible notes and signes with the name of his bodie and bloud not by chaunging their nature but by adding grace to their nature c. Which is as much as if he should say vnto vs that This is my body This is my bloud should be expounded by these wordes of the same our Lord I am the bread of heauen I am the stocke of the vine c. In an other place Idem Dial. 2. The mysticall signes saith the Orthodoxe which are offered to God by the ministers of God are the signes of the bodie and bloud of our Lord. But saith he to the Erranist Thou hast entangled thy selfe in thine owne snares for they forsake not their owne natures after the sanctification but abide in their first substance figure forme palpable and to be felt as before c. And he that shall compare Bellarmines answeres by his sensible Accidentes with the text of Theodoret which is worthie the reading throughout shall find them altogether fond and friuolous In the meane time we con him heartie thankes Gelas de duab natur in Christ for that he so freely confesseth that Gelasius whether hee were Pope or Bishop of Cesarea is of the same opinion with Theodoret as he was also liuing in the same time Certainly saith hee it is a diuine thing as also the Sacramentes of the bodie and bloud of Christ which we receiue for thereof and by them we are made partakers of the diuine nature and notwithstanding they cease not to bee the substances of bread and wine And verily the image and semblance of the bodie and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the Sacraments Note Image and semblance that is to say The figure and not the thing Againe Which abide in their first substance of bread and wine Is it enough to say that by the word substance he vnderstood accidents Leo the first Bishop of Rome Leo 1. ep 23. ad Cler. pleb Constant In the mysticall distribution of the spirituall food that is giuen that is taken to the end that receiuing the vertue of this celestiall meate we might be turned into his flesh which is made our flesh Looke how many words there be so many breaches are there made vpon transubstantiation Mysticall distribution that is to say sacramentall Spirituall food the vertue of the heauenly meate to bee turned or chaunged into his flesh which is made our flesh For this is not wrought by any disgesting of the flesh as they pretend They obiect againe for the rest will carrie the question away Idem serm 6. dereiunio 7. mens That is receiued in at the mouth which is belieued by faith And therefore say they it is receiued in at the mouth whereas wee on the contrarie expound him by S. Augustine Thou takest the bread of the Lorde in at thy mouth if thou belieuest with thy heart Thou takest the bread of the Lord to thy condemnation if thou belieuest not And thus that which thou belieuest by faith thou receiuest at thy mouth be it vnto thy condemnation or be it vnto thy saluation Hesychius If his bodie had not beene crucified we should not haue eaten him Hesychius in Leuit. l. 1. c. 2. l. 2. c. 8. l. 6. c. 22 for the meat that we now eate is that wee receiue the memoriall of his passion Againe Hee forbiddeth vs once to thinke or conceiue any earthly or carnall thing of the holy thinges and commandeth vs to receiue them diuinely and spiritually c. And it was a custome in his time as he himselfe testifyeth To burne all that which remained of the Sacrament in the fire An argument that they had not receiued any such opinion in the Church then as is at this day But they haue a conceipt that they shall reape a better crop out of Eusebius Emissenus not that Greeke of whome S. Ierome speaketh for seeing he speaketh of the Pelagians it cannot be he but the author of the sermon De corpore Domini a Latine no doubt whome some take to bee Faustus Rhegiensis others Caesarius and the later writers some one some an other but both of them Abbots of Lirin Let vs heare him Let all doubting or wauering of faith depart far away from vs. Herein we agree C. Quia corpus de consec D. 2. This sacrifice must be in deed by faith not by the outward appearance by the inward affection not by the outward sight And in that also But say they The inuisible Priest chaungeth his visible creatures into the substance of his bodie and bloud by his word by a hidden and secret power Marke the inuisible Priest and not the visible or minister But so it is say they that he chaungeth it euen in conscience taking these wordes after the letter would they subscribe vnto them could they approue them by their owne Maximes That it is an errour yea an heresie to hold that the bread may be made the bodie of Christ that it may be turned into the bodie of Christ Against their Glose also vpon the word Conuertantur which expressely condemneth disaluoweth this proposition De paue fit corpus Christi and alleadgeth the inconueniences thereof c. Let vs then expound him by himselfe and not by our preiudicate opinions In the Sacrament saith he seeing that our Lord remoued his bodie farre away from our eies it was necessarie that he should consecrate the Sacrament of his bodie and bloud in the day of the Supper To the end saith he that Coleretur iugiter per mysterium C. Semel Christ de consecr D. 2. that might be continually celebrated by a mysterie which had beene once offered for the price of our redemption and that as
Christians should not haue anie other meanes to touch Christ but with their handes or to eate him but with their teeth seeing that the virgine is not blessed for hauing conceiued him in her wombe nor Simeon for hauing receiued him into his armes but rather by hauing belieued in him What shall wee say then to these good Fathers Verily the same that they say vnto vs themselues Ambr. in serm 58. de Mar. Magdal in Luc. l. 10. c. 24 Augu. de cognit ver vit c. 40. Wee worshippe Christ as wee touch him And Wee touch him saith Saint Ambrose not with a bodily touching but by faith After the same manner sayeth hee That Saint Stephen on earth saw and touched Christ in heauen Yea saith Saint Augustine Hee saw him being vnder the roofe of the seate of iudgement which hee pearsed through saith hee and the heauens aboue the same and therefore with the eyes of the spirite Wee worshippe him in the mysteries but not the mysteries in the Sacrament but not the Sacrament the Creator in the creature sanctified but not the creature For Saint Ambrose which calleth it a creature Thou hast seene saith he the Sacraments vppon the Altar Chrysost in Marc. hom 14 Ep. 120. c. 21. Psal 21. Thou hast admired this creature howbeit a wonted and well knowne creature c. had neuer counselled vs to worshippe and adore the creature So likewise sayeth Saint Chrysostome That wee worshippe Christ in the Sacrament of Baptisme Saint Ierome That Paula had worshipped him in the cribbe was it euer in these mens mindes to say that they had worshipped the water or the cribbe Or would they haue said therefore that either the water or the cribbe were transubstantiated into Christ But they ought therefore to haue added that which followeth in S. Augustine Worship him for he is holy And who is this that is holy Euen he saith he for whose loue and sake thou worshippest the stoole c. that is to say the flesh of Christ the humanitie of Christ And when thou worshippest it rest not thy thoughtes vppon the flesh least then thou shouldest not bee quickened by the spirite c. And this same good and sound faith is set forth in another place of Saint Augustine which they alleadge and that somewhat more commendablie For in the place where it is saide Rich men were brought to the table of the Lord they tooke the bodie and bloud But they did but onely worship they were not filled full c. that is because they contented themselues to make profession of his name without conforming of themselues vnto Christ And this he declareth by these wordes Non saturati sunt sicut pauperes vsque ad imitationem They were not filled and fedde full as were the poore to the conforming of themselues vnto him They are not ashamed to adde Illud that so they may make him say Hardingus That they worshipped the bodie and the bloud and not simplie They worshipped And some one amongst them hath added as drawing the text to a further length They haue acknowledged that Christ was there present The same impudencie shoulde thrust him forwarde and cause him to adde Reallie corporallie and Per modum transubstantiationis c. They would faine bee beholden to Theodoret and as we haue seene there is not any one more against them for he hath told vs That the signes are not changed that they continue in their nature and substance c. And their greatest Doctors are of iudgement that there cannot be had any adoration without transubstantiation He saith therefore And yet notwithstanding these same signes of breade and wine which retaine their first substance are vnderstoood belieued and worshipped as though they were the things which they are belieued to be Worshipped therefore as they are vnderstoode and as they are belieued that is Vt Antitypa ratione prototypi as signes in respect of that which is signified As the Councell of Nice II. speaketh of images no respect being had to that which they are but to that which they represent For likewise Theodoret calleth them Images in the words next ensuing Compare saith he the patterne with the person and thou shalt see therein the similitude likenes for it is requisite that the figure should resemble the veritie Now the images of any thing whatsoeuer are not worshipped with that worship which is due to God and by consequent to adore or worship in Theodoret can not be any other thing then to honor reuerence receiue with reuerence which we most willingly yeeld vnto the Sacraments Proofes out of the fathers Clem. Constit l. 2. c. 6. August de Trinit l. 3. c. 10 De catechism rud c. 26. Idem de doct Christ l. 3. c. 9 And of a truth this is the same that the fathers teach vs. S. Clement if those be his books That all do take in order the precious body and bloud of our Lord drawing softly thereunto with feare reuerence as to the bodie of a king S. Augustine The sacraments may be honoured as religious things And in another place As visible signes of diuine things wherin the inuisible things are honoured and not as common things seeing they are sanctified by the blessing Againe He that worshippeth a profitable signe instituted of God and whereof hee vnderstandeth the power and signification doth not worship that which is seene and passeth away but rather that vnto which all such things ought to be referred Where it is to be noted that he vseth the words of adoring reuerencing indifferently that he referreth them not to the signes but to the things signified And a little after he giueth for an example the sacrament of Baptisme Idem de bono perseuer l. 2. c. 13. the celebration of the bodie bloud of our Lord and of this by name he saith That that which is said Sursum corda is to admonish vs to pray vnto God that he would lift vp our harts to ascend and taste the things that are on high where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God Not the thinges that are vppon earth God saith hee to whome wee must render thankes for so great a thing c. And when likewise it shall haue at any time escaped any of the fathers to say altogether rawlie which yet hath not at anie time J worshippe the excellencie of the Sacrament What other thing should this bee but of the same sence with that which Tertullian saith I adore the fulnes or sufficiencie of the scriptures Of the scriptures because there God speaketh vnto vs giueth the effectnall working of the spirit c. And yet they are not God neither are they adored or worshipped as God Of the Sacrament then in like manner seeing it pleaseth God therein to giue and in a neere and straite manner to communicate himselfe with vs and yet not therefore God but the instrument of the grace of God to be reuerenced
visibiliter to put inuisibiliter for substances accidents for temporall eternall c. And this is further to be noted therewithall that he was not taxed of heresie for the same that the Abbotte Trithemius which forgot not to set the brand vpon others when there was cause hath not once pointed at any such thing in him Haimo Bishop of Halberstat and one of Alcuinus his hearers Haim in 1 Cor. 11 in Sabbarh post Iudic. who was Schoolemaster to Charlemaine This is my bodie saith he that is the bread that Christ gaue to his Disciples and to all the predestinated vnto eternall life and that that which the Ministers do consecrate daily in the Church by the power of the Diuinitie which filleth this bread is the bodie of Christ Now I would know if they wil approue of this Proposition That this hoc is the bread Then it is not their Iudiniduum vagum nor yet their accidents Giuen to the elect or predestinated not then to the wicked and vngodly and not by the mouth Filled with the diuine power not then with Christ really who is that fulnesse And in the end This bread the body of Christ And how according to their owne speeches without heresie How then but Sacramentally by the neere coÌ„iunction of the thing with the signe Againe The flesh that Christ tooke in vnity of person and this bread are not two bodies but one And how can this be otherwise then by this Sacramental vnion The one then as saith the Canon In truth the other in a mysterie Againe At the same instant that this bread is broken and eaten Christ is offered and eaten whole notwithstanding and liuing Then it is the bread that is broken and not the body and not the accidents And therefore according to that which he saith afterward Hoc facite Sanctifie this body in remembrance of me in remembrance saith hee of my passion of your redemption that I haue redemed you with my bloud He addeth The Lord therefore hath left this sauing Sacrament to all the faithfull that so he may imprint in their harts that he died for their redemption So some man being about to die leaueth vnto his friend a gift and saith vnto him keepe that in remembrance of me he is heauie and pensiue when he seeth it and we when we are partakers of this eternall gift in the Sacrament must come to it with reuerence remembring our selues with what loue he hath loued vs giuing himselfe a ransome for vs. The bread therfore is a Sacrament of the gift and not the gift it selfe and that vpon far stronger reasons then any hee toucheth which assureth vs more and more of the reall possession of our life nourishment in Christ In whom saith he in an other place to abide and dwell is to eate him is to liue by him is to be bone of his bones flesh of his flesh and one with himselfe Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Maguntia The creator of things redeemer of men Raban in eccl l. 7. c. 8. making of the fruits of the earth that is to say of Corne and wine a fit and conuenient mysterie turned them to Sacraments of his bodie bloud He saith not into his body and bloud Idem l. 1. c. 5. de proprie rerum verb. He would saith he in an other place that these Sacraments should bee receiued into the mouthes of the faithfull and become their foode to the end that by the visible worke the inuisible might be shewed that is to say by the true corporall eating the true spiritual eating What is now become of our accidents For euen saith he as the materiall meate doth nourish refresh the body outwardly so the word of God doth comfort and nourish the soule inwardly c. Where he layeth downe before vs the agreement and analogie which once comming to cease as in deede it ceaseth by Transubstantiation there followeth the destruction of the Sacrament Some obiect But are they not the bodie and bloud Let vs heare him Because that bread dooth confirme and make strong the bodie it is verie fitly called the bodie of Christ and the Wine because that it maketh the bloud in the fleshe is referred to bloud Note also That they are named But when they are sanctified then by the holy Ghost they become the Sacraments of the diuine bodie Idem de sacrâ—m Euchar. c. 10. 41. And then not into the verie thing of the Sacrament Which saith he in an other place hee hath left vnto vs because it must needes be that he should ascend vp into heauen to the end that they might bee figures Characters of his flesh and bloud vnto vs and that our spirit and our flesh might bee by these things the more aboundantly nourished to the receiuing by faith of the things that are inuisible and spirituall So by this it appeareth that the thing of the Sacraments is spirituall and receiued by faith that is to say spiritually And so in deed it is not receiued but of the faithfull euen by such as haue the spirit of Christ dwelling in their hearts For saith he The Sacrament is one thing Idem de prop. Serm l. 5. c 11. Idem l. 1. c. 3. and the power and vertue of the Sacrament is another thing The Sacrament is taken in at the mouth but the vertue of the Sacrament by the inward man The Sacrament is turned into the nourishment of the bodie but the vertue of the Sacrament worketh in vs vnto eternall life The Sacrament by some is taken to their destruction but the thing alwayes vnto saluation If they say that the wicked in the Sacrament doe receiue the bodie of Christ but not the power and vertue of the same how can they without blasphemie seperate the bodie of Christ from his soule Or the one or other from his Diuinitie From his spirit And who can receiue that but to his saluation They replie againe It is as he saith That the figure and Character is verily the same which it is outwardly perceiued to be Idem de Sacr. Euchar. c. 14. but that which is taken inwardly is altogether truth without any shaddow And without doubt also we say and himselfe dooth lay it open We participate the flesh of Christ which was crucified for vs verily and truely and the Sacraments of the same in deed are there And thus there is truth and veritie in euerie thing whether it bee the thing or else the Sacrament of the thing Paschasius Pasch Ratpert de Corp. Sang. Domini c. 1.19 50. Abbot of Corbie in Saxonie held the contrarie opinion for the Schooles and Monasteries were diuided concerning this point And yet so new was this doctrine as that we may see that he was not able to vtter his mind or to speake what he would seeme to meane in the booke which he made He saith The Lord hath done in heauen and in earth whatsoeuer
he would and that because it was his will where he taketh for graunted the thing that is in question Although it bee the figure of bread and wine notwithstanding after the consecration we must altogether belieue that it is the body and bloud of Iesus Christ And al his arguments are drawne from the omnipotencie of God without any proofe of his will But would the masters of Transubstantiation approue and like of these words Paschas ad Prudeg The bread and wine are the flesh and bloud of Christ And yet notwithstanding he is much troubled in himselfe when hee considereth That there must be in the Lords supper the figure and notwithstanding the truth And how the one may bee without the preiudice of the other c. In so much as that he is forced to say That it is no maruaile if this mysterie be a figure and if the wordes thereof bee called figures seeing that Christ himselfe is called an ingrauen forme and figure Ideâ— de Corp. Sang. Dom. l. 4. euen hee which is the truth it selfe That we belieue that that is done spiritually and that we ought so to belieue it to be That he is offered for vs mystically That wee walke by faith and not by sight That our Lord hath left vs these visible figures ascending vp to heauen to feede our spirite and fleshe by faith in spirituall things c. Neuerthelesse notwithstanding the resistances and oppositions of the most learned the abuse ceased not to spread it selfe further into diuers countries abroad because that the ignorant people who haue alwaies the stronger side did perceiue and see that both authoritie and profit would grow vnto them therby We read by name that in England there rise a great schisme betwixt Odo Archbishop of Canterburie assisted by the meaner and inferiour sort of Priestes being the parties affecting Transubstantiation and the most learned of his Cleargie To whose arguments and places alleadged out of the Fathers hee opposeth authoritie and force And secondly to winne the Idiots and simple people he vseth illusions and false myracles whereof these ignorant ages did neuer want good store This was about the yeare nine hundred and fiftie But in Fraunce Berengarius Deane of Saint Maurice of Augiers about the yeare 1050. Anno 1050. Lauâ—ranc con Berengar displaieth againe the ensigne of truth and writeth a Treatise of the Lords Supper whereof wee haue nothing more then it pleased Lanfrancus his aduersarie to cite in his writings against him And yet notwithstanding such as that thereby he doth neither iniurie the truth nor his good name although he make it euident and apparant enough that hee hath not forgotten to weaken and detract from the force of his reasons so much as he possibly could This Berengarius therefore writ priuily to Lanfrancus a Millaner then Abbot of Bec-Heloin in Normandie what hee thought of the holy supper Lanfrancus being absent his Canons did open the letter and sent it to Rome In it he praised the booke of Iohannes Scotus written in the time of Charlemaine The letter is made knowne in a Synod holden at Rome and condemned the Author being neuer heard Lanfrancus is inioyned to refute it if so be he would cleare himselfe of all suspition of hauing any part in that pretended errour which was so much the more because of such intelligences as did in verie familiar sort passe betwixt him and Berengarius Scotus his booke was burnt two hundred and fiftie yeares after his death Berengarius continueth his vertuous course and had for his Disciples and followers diuers great personages in Fraunce amongst others Freward and Waldus Knights c. A thing verie likely seeing that the Popes otherwise more curious and carefull about worldly complaints then studious in questions of Diuinitie did so much molest and trouble them Leo the ninth therefore called a Councell at Verscillis in Piemont and came thither himselfe in person Berengarius durst not appeare but sent thither onely two of his friends to tender his reasons who were easily made afraid The Councell of Rome thereupon became the more emboldned and gaue order notwithstanding that the French Church should assemble a Councell at Towrs to cause Berengarius to stoope and become subiect This was in the time of Pope Victor the second and there was Hildebrand afterward Gregorie the seuenth on his behalfe the most violent and head-strong Prelate that euer liued There appeared Berengarius who declared vnto them That he did not teach bare and naked signes in the Eucharist but that the bread and wine there vsed were most vndoubted pledges and seales of the reall Communion in the true bodie and bloud of our Lord which all those haue and there receiue which take these signes with a true faith That the bread and wine notwithstanding doe not chaunge their substances but rather of common ones are made holy ones of elements Sacraments c. And that to conclude hee held for other matters as all the auncient Fathers haue written and according also to the sence and meaning of the Lithurgie ordinarily read in the Church c. Thus the Councell rested satisfied at his hands But Pope Nicholas II. perceiuing that this doctrine was on foote againe cited Berengarius to Rome the second time to appeare in the Consistorie of Lateran and thither hee came being drawne and allured by faire and flattering speeches The first argument that was framed against him was that if he did not retract his former opinions he should be burnt and thereupon Humbert the Burgonian afterward Cardinall drew a reuocation such as we reade in the Decree That hee doth confesse C. Ego Berengar de consec d. 2. that after the Consecration the bread and wine are the verie bodie and bloud of Christ That they are there sensibly and in truth handled with the hands of the Priests broken and brused with the teeth of the faithfull c. And that hee curseth all them which doe iudge otherwise c. that is to say the whole Romish Church at this day which holdeth these propositions for hereticall That the bread is the bodie that the bodie is brused with the teeth c. Lanfranc de Sacr. Alger Where it is also to be noted that he saith Of the faithfull not of all those that are partakers thereof a remnant and small parcell of the pure doctrine and a signe of the as yet imperfect deliuerie and teaching of the impure and corrupt And therefore the Glose of the Decree addeth thereunto Beware least thou shouldest not rightly vnderstand that which Berengarius saith here and so shouldest fall into greater and more grosse heresies then euer he did And the Glose vpon the Canon Vtrum hath these words C. Vtrum de consecr d 2. ex August vbi Glos It is not lawfull to eate Christ with the teeth Berengarius saith hee said the contrarie but hee spoke hyberbolically and went beyond the listes of the
c. Againe The heauenly bread which is the flesh of Christ is called the bodie of Christ suc modo after a sort though notwithstanding so it be that it is the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ that is of that which beeing visible palpable and mortall was fastned vpon the Crosse and that this offering vp thereof is called passion death c. Not in the truth of the thing but in a signifying mysterie c. In the Glose It is called the body of Christ that is to say significat it signifieth it The heauenly Sacrament which truely representeth the flesh of Christ is called the bodie of Christ but improperly c. Thus then according to the Canons we eate in the Eucharist the flesh of Christ c. spiritually not carnally Now it followeth that we looke a little about vs C Quia corpus 34. C Qui manducant 57. C. Vt quid 46. C Credere 18. C. Tuncâ—â—s 89 C Non iste panis 55. De Consecr d. 2. to see whether it be by faith or with our mouthes The Canon Quia corpus saith The Lord hauing to ascend vp into heauen did consecrate vnto vs in the day of the Supper the Sacrament of his body and his bloud to the end that that which had beene once offered for payment and satisfaction might be continually honoured in a mysterie and that this perdurable offering might stil liue and abide in remembrance which must be waighed and considered of fide non specie By inward faith not by outward appearance and pondered by the inward affection not by the outward sight The Canon Qui manducant That which is taken in the Sacrament visiblie is in truth eaten and drunken spiritually That which is seene is the bread and cuppe c. That wherein it is needfull that the faith should be instructed is how that the bread is the bodie of Christ c. And they are called Sacraments because one thing is seene another vnderstood That which is seene hath a bodily shape but that which is vnderstood a spirituall fruit The Canon Vt quid whereto doest thou prepare thy bellie and teeth beleeue and thou hast eaten The Canon Credere to beleeue in Christ is to eate the bread of life The Canon Non iste panis It is not that bread which goeth into the bodie that feedeth the substance of our soule but the bread of eternall life The Canon In illo Christ is in that Sacrament not therefore a corporall meate but a spirituall And againe the aboue said Canon C. Quia corpus 34. d. 2. de Consecr Quia corpus when thou goest vp to the Altar to be fed with spirituall meates behold by faith the holy bodie of thy God touch him with thy vnderstanding lay hold vpon him with the hand of thy hart Against all these they haue but one onely miserable Glose to obiect which saith So soone as the kind is touched with the teeth Glos in C. Trib. de consecr d. 2. C. Qui manduc 57. Mis in sequent C. Vtrumque 71. C. vt quid 46 Câ—mutat 69. A sumente nonconscissus non confractus non diuisus integer capitur Ioh. 19. Gl. in C. Ego Bereng 41. in C. vtrum so soone is the bodie of Christ rapt and conueighed with speed into heauen c. And yet it is diuersly canuased and tossed by the Canonistes and schoolemen Of eating with the mouth should follow the chawing of it with the teeth But these Canons are contrarie to that The Canon Qui manducat When we eate it we make not any morsels or bittes thereof The faithfull know how they eate the flesh of Christ It is eaten by partes in the Sacrament that is in the signes but it is all whole in thine heart The Canon Vt quid whereto doest thou prepare thy teeth The Canon Vtrum It is not lawfull to eate him with teeth The Masse likewise in the sequences and conclusions following thereon He that taketh him cutteth him not bruseth him not neither yet diuideth him into morsels c. Contrarie to this ancient truth is only that Canon Ego Berengarius made by the Cardinall Humbert as it were in despight of all antiquitie which saith That he is broken and brused with the teeth But without alleadging against him the Gospell which saith Not one of his bones shall bee broken we will onely lay down the words of two Gloses which proclaime for hereticks both Pope Nicholas II. as also the whole Church of Rome of that time The Glose of that same Canon which saith Referre all to the kinds for we make not any part of the bodie of Christ otherwise thou shalt fall into a greater heresie then Berengarius And the Glose of the Canon Vtrum vpon these wordes Is is not lawfull to eate Christ with teeth Berengarius saith the Glose saith the contrarie that is to say Cardinall Humbert in the retractation which he drew for Berengriaus but he spake hyperbolically and so exceeded the bondes of the truth Of the eating of him with the mouth it would follow that the wicked and vngodly should eate the bodie of Christ The Canons againe are contrarie thereunto The Canon Qui discordat Hee that is at strife with Christ C. Qui discordat 64. C. Qui manduc 57. C. Quia passus 35. C. Christus 56. Fidelium dentibus atters C Prima quidem â—aeres 43. d. ead C. Non oportet 3. C. Panis 38. C. Hoc est quod dicim 47. C. Ante benedict 39. C. Panis est 54. eateth not his flesh neither yet drinketh his blood although hee should euerie day take the sacrament of so high and great a thing as a iudgement of his destruction The Canon Qui manducant They that eate and drinke Christ eate and drinke life The Canon Christus Christ is the bread of whom who so eateth shall liue for euer Likewise the Canon Ego Berengarius attributeth it as proper to the faithfull to eate him with teeth In briefe vpon the question also of transubstantiation If the bodie of Christ after the words spoken must be sought for in heauen or in the hands of the priest and if of the wine bread there be nothing remaining but the Accidents Christ say the Canons is in heauen vntil this world shall be consummate and finished The bodie of Christ must be in one place but the truth is spread abroad euerie where And as for the kinds Wee must not offer any other thing in the Sacrament then wine water and bread which are blessed in the figure of Christ Before the blessing one kind is named but after the blessing the bodie is signified The bread and cuppe are a nourishing of the resurrection by the mysticall consecration that is by the efficacie of the worde and institution of Christ That is saith the Glose A spirituall refreshing of the soule which rayseth vs vp againe from the death of sinne Againe The bread and the cup saith he continue the thing
III. a great promoter of this monster moueth this monstrous and brutish question What eateth the Mouse when she gnaweth the sacrament Lombard hath answered God knoweth And notwithstanding towards the end It may be safely said that the bodie of Christ is not taken by beastes But the schoole of Sorbone hath noted Hie Magister non tenetur Other follow not the iudgement of the maister of the sentences in this point Iohannes de Burgo verie grossely The Mouse doth take the bodie of Christ Innocentius more subtillie The bread passeth away miraculously when the bodie commeth and the bodie passeth and getteth it selfe away when the Mouse draweth neere Alex. p. 4 q. 45. membr 1. the bread commeth into his place againe Alexander Hales The bodie of Christ is euen in the bellie of the Mouse and yet no disparagement to the bodie of Christ nor yet to the Sacrament in the bodie in like manner of a dogge or hogge c. Bonauenture verily dealeth more honestly The Mouse cannot eate it God forbid it should euer come to that And what would the Fathers say concerning these absurdities which teach vs That no bodie receiueth the bodie of Christ that hath not first worshipped it And that many worship it which doe not receiue it And what vnequall dealing is this here to eleuate and hold vp on high a peece of bread for the bodie of Christ to call it our Lord to adore it and belieue it to be God and after this eleuating of it to debase it so farre as to make it subiect to the filthie vomiting of men and deuouring guttes of greedie beastes And this may serue for a scantling of the goodly diuinitie proceeding from this deuise of transubstantiation and their bookes are full of the like Their contrarying and crossing one of another is a thing no lesse worth the noting The contrarieties which they haue vttered in the deciding of the former questions Gl. in C. Tribus Durand in Rational l 4. c. 41. Aftesa in Sum. 4. part tit 17. Richard 4. d. 9 q. 1. Bonau 4. d. 9. q 1. Thom. 3. q. 80. art 3. C.S. quis per ebrietatem ibi Gloss Caiet tom 2. tr 2. c. 3. 5. Thom. opusc 58. c. 13. The first Is the bodie of Christ taken in at the mouth passeth it into the stomacke To the first they answere yea At the second they are astonished Gratian his Glose saith So soone as the tooth toucheth it it is swiftly conueighed vppe into heauen Durandus From the mouth it passeth and goeth forward vnto the hart that is to say into the soule And then there ceaseth to be any corporall presence the spirituall onely remaining Another Yea it goeth downe into the bellie prouided that the kind haue not beene changed in the mouth Others it passeth downe thither and there abideth vntill the kindes bee consumed How much better had it beene for them to haue held themselues to the Fathers The heauenly bread which nourisheth our soules is not that which goeth downe into the stomacke c. And in deed Cardinall Caietanus was ashamed of the contrarie saying That it is most false to affirme hold that the bodie of Christ is taken corporallie for it is taken spiritually in the Eucharist by beleeuing and not by receiuing Againe He that eateth not cheweth not the bodie of Christ but the kinds but the spirituall eating which is performed by the soule obtaineth the flesh of Christ which is in the Sacrament c. Secondly The bodie of Christ at such time as it is taken in the Eucharist is it in heauen or not Thomas answereth Jt is visiblie in heauen in the shape of a man but his diuinitie his bodie is vpon euerie altar sacramentallie If hee vnderstood this word as Saint Augustine doth we shall agree together but hee vnderstandeth it by an inuisible bodie And what shall then become of that which all the Fathers say vnto vs As he is God he is infinite he is euerie where but as hee is man he is finite limited and abiding in one place Whereunto they bring forth this goodly distinction but let him proue it that can The bodie of Christ is in a place but not locally It is quantū but not after the manner of a qualitie that is to say it is a bodie but not corporally c. Thirdly What becommeth of the substances of bread and wine in this change Gl. in C. species de consecr d. 2. in C. firm ext de Sum. Trinit Caiet in Tho. Thomas saith after Lombard That they are turned into the substance of the bodie and bloud of Christ. Gratian his Glose and the extrauagants That they vanish to nothing And Pope Innocent the third in like manner Scotus thereupon refuteth Thomas and Caietanus refuteth Scotus Likewise they are not agreed vpon their propositions for diuers let not to say after all the Fathers The bread is the bodie of Christ Scotus to the contrarie saith That it cannot be said so and as farre off is that Panis fit corpus Christi The bread is made the bodie of Christ. But rather Of bread the bodie of Christ is made c. C. Non oportet ibi Gloss de Consecr d. 2. C. Cum Martha S. Verū de celebr Miss Thom. 3. q. 14. art 8 Durand l 4. c 42. Scot. in Rep d 2. 3 d. 10 q. 1. And how much shorter had it beene for them to hold themselues to the fathers The bread is the bodie of Christ is made the bodie of Christ Per modum Sacramenti after the manner of a Sacrament Fourthly What becommeth of the water in this change who is it that bringeth it to nothing That transubstantiateth it into bloud with the wine And into Christs vitall humour c. Thomas more subtilly turneth it From water into wine and after from wine into bloud Durandus dealeth more so berlie Who dare bee so bold to decide the question And what shall become then of their Allegorie That the water signifieth the Church the mingling of the water with the wine the coniunction of the Church with Christ But Scotus after all this giueth the crosse blow vnto all these pretended changes The first opinion saith he was that the substance of bread did abide the second that it did not but that it vanisheth into nothing or is resolued into the first matter the thirde that the bread is turned into the bodie of Christ c. But I say that althogh the substāce of bread shal abide yet is shal not take away our worshipping of it yet shall not be any cause of idolatrie and that the substance of bread doth more fitly represent the bloud of Christ then the accidents alone Petr. de Alliaci l. 4. Sent. d. q 6. seeing there is more resemblance betwixt substance substance then betwixt a substance and an accident And the Cardinal of Alliaco hath followed his steps The maner saith he that admitteth that
to this idol Magnificet animatua Demmum let thy soule therefore saith he praise the Lord c. Because thine eies haue seene thy saluation which we that is to say the Pope haue prepared before the face of thy people c. By the same meanes he sendeth vnto her Quaternum in in quo officium continetur a scedule or booke of the office which some hold to haue beene composed by Thomas Aquinas a great defender of this new opinion to haue had giuen vnto him therefore for a gift from the Pope a Doue of siluer whereupon it commeth that being painted he is alwaies set forth with the picture of a Doue at his right shoulder And namely he turneth the hymne Pange lingua gloriosi which Fortunatus had framed about the yeare 600. vpon the passion of our Sauiour to the honor of this feast But because as saith the Glose of Decretals In Decret de reliquils ve nerat Sanct. vbi Gloss Clem. l. 3. Pomerius De reliquiis veneratione sanctorum that this constitution was not receiued in euerie place about the yeare 1311. that is to say some 50. yeares after Clement the fift ordained in a Councell holden at Vienna that it should be obserued of all And about the yeare 1360. beganne the Processions and Tabernacles at Pauie the patterne whereof was recommended to all Christendome For in deed in that of Clements there was not as yet any mention made of bringing it forth in procession and offering of it in the streetes to worship for in it there are onely these words That this feast was ordained for the preparing of euery one to the better receiuing of him c. In like manner there is euery where mention made of two kinds But in despight that Berengarius who had striuen against and beaten downe transubstantiation was Deane of S. Maurice of Angiers hee was recommended vnto this same Cittie that he might in most singular and solemne sort celebrate this festiuall day And hence sprung the originall of the solemnities of Angiers more execrable cursed and in derision of our Lord then it was euer in any other place Since Pope Martin the fift and Pope Eugenius the fourth after the yeare 1400. redoubled the pardons againe so far forth as that those of the day of the Octaues calculated and reckned by Pomerius doe amount to fortie foure thousande daies of true pardon and that as well on his part and behalfe that looketh on as on his behalfe that communicateth And this is the goodly diuinitie of Popes vpon the holy Supper of our Lord. The pompe of Rome L. 3. Ceremon eccles Romā Let vs adde hereunto the pompe of Rome for it is yet come in of a later time after the other In the middest of the same a little before the Pope there is ledde a white ambling gelding which beareth the pretended Sacrament shut vp close and fast in a boxe This ambling gelding hath a little bell of a verie good sound hanging at his necke a sumpter-cloth is spread ouer it Lib. Pontifica lis sect 1. 2 5. 12. l. 1. 3. de offic sacrist wrought with the Popes armes twelue lustie cutters or ruffians walking before c. Sometimes also if the Pope go into the fieldes they send it with traine and baggage And hee that is desirous to know yet further let him reade the Pontificall bookes wherein they intreate of Processions through the Cittie of the Pope or of the Emperour his coronation But this is a thing for vs to marke and proue namely what agreement there is betwixt these inuentions and deuises of Popes and the institution of our Lord Take eate do this in remembrance of me c. As also what meanes there are for them to excuse this idolatrie There can no excuse be made for their idolatrie Summ. Angel Euchar. c 26. according to their owne Maximes They hold that If the Priest haue not had an intent and purpose actuall as some say habituall as others to consecrate that then he doth not consecrate That likewise if he had not any further purpose then to consecrate halfe a bread that then the other halfe is common breade Those then that worship if he haue not had any purpose to consecrate what do they worship but the creature And with what faith seeing when as he hath had a purpose they are not able to sound the truth and find it out Thom. Salisburiens de art predican c. 25. Wherefore it will behoue men to haue recourse to Thomas Salisburiensis his consideration as To worship vpon condition that euerie dutie and thing required to the action be well and truely done c. They hold also That the intent of him that consecrateth is not sufficient if his also that did institute the same doe not concurre Bonau in Còpend sacr theol l. 6. rub 11. that is to say that the Priest haue an intent saith Bonauenture if he worke not according to the institution of Christ To worship then in a priuate Masse is it not idolatrie seeing that Hugo of S. Victor Gabriel Biell and Gerardus Lorichius their great Maisters of transubstantiation doe openly hold and maintaine That the priuate Masse wherein there is not made any remembrance or publike Communion is against the institution of Christ And further seeing there is such an infinite number of cases such as are verie ordinarie Thom. p. 3 q 13. Ioh. de Burgo Pupilla c. 3. Gerson contr Florent Extr. de celeb Miss and notwithstanding not perceiued of those that are present wherein the priest doth not consecrate at all As If hee forget to put wine into the cuppe if the bread be made of any other then wheate flower if there be more water then wine if the wine be eager and sharpe if of seuen leaues moe or lesse he did thinke but of sixe if he haue omitted but one worde Of those wordes say I once againe whereupon they are not agreed amongst themselues c. who shall assure their faith that are present thereat of the consecration and by consequent warrant their consciences against idolatrie How that many notable personages of this time haue beene ashamed of the doctrine Pic. Mirand in Thesi◠secund Thom. Scot Idem in Apo in disput de Euch. Now it is verie certaine that manie in these our daies and times haue beene ashamed of this doctrine Iohannes Picus Counte of Mirandula durst dispute publikely at Rome against transubstantiation And his Theses are That the true bodie of Christ is locally in heauen and sacramentallie at the Altar That these wordes also Hoc est corpus meum doe not consecrate if the former be not expressed that is Pridié quà m pateretur c. That is to say that the institution lyeth not in certaine wordes but in the institution of Christ That the foure words tenentur materialiter non significatiuè Likewise he deliuereth a particular manner of eating the flesh