Transubstantiation Exploded, Part 1 · Paragraph 11
PAR. II.
Twelve testimonies out of Origen against Transubstantiation vindicated, and all objections out of him answered.
THe next ancient Doctor I claimed at the Conference for the doctrine of the reformed Churches, concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, was aOrig in Lev. Hom. …. p. 141. S… secundum literam sequaris hee iy…m quod dictum est nisi manducaveritis carnem meam & bibe…itis sanguinem … occidit hee litera.Origen, who in his seventh Homilie upon Leviticus, repeating those words of our Saviour, unlesse ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood, ye have no life in you, saith of them, if ye follow the letter, that letter killeth. To this allegation you answer; That Origen speakes according to the capernaiticall letter, that is, according to the literall sense wherein the Capernaits did understand those words, who as Saint bIn Psal. 4. & 98. &c. 6. Iohn.Austin and cDe caena Dom.Cyprian say, thought our Saviour would have cut off some pieces from his body and given them to eate, or that they were to eate it boyled or rosted.
But 1. You should have observed that Origen saith not, if you follow the Rep. 1.conceits of the Capernaits, but if you follow the letter of Christ, that is the sense, which the letter of his words carrie. Now there is never a word, letter, or sillable in Christs speech, which signifieth, or importeth boyling or rosting, cutting or mangling. These are but accidents to the eating of flesh, flesh may bee eaten, and that in the most proper acception of the phrase, though it be neither boyled, or rosted, nor mangled. Whosoever takes flesh raw, or rosted, whole or cut, into his mouth, cheweth it with his teeth, and after conveigheth it into his stomacke: truely and properly eateth that flesh. Thus you doe in the Sacrament, if Pope Nicolas prescribe not a wrong forme of recantation to Berengarius, yet extant in your Canon Law: I dGrat. de consecrat. dist. 3. Ego Berengarius credo corpus Domini sonsual…ter … in veritate manibus sacerdotis tractars, frangi & fidelium dentibus atteri.Berengarius doe beleeve the body of our Lord Iesus Christ to bee sensually or sensibly and in truth handled by the hands of the Priest, broken and champt or torne in peeces by the teeth of the faithfull.
2. You should have cast backe your eye to the precedent words of Origen, which make it evidently appeare, that he listened not to your Iewes harpe, nor tooke the tune from the Cap… naits straine: but that his meaning was, that we ought to take the words of our Saviour in a spirituall and figurative sense, and not in the carnall and proper. For having related the words of those Jewes in Saint Iohn, how shall this man give us his flesh to eate? hee turneth to his Christian auditors, saying, But you if you are Children of the Church, if you are instructed in the mysteries of the Gospell, if the Word which was made flesh dwell among you, acknowledge these things to be true which we say, because they are the words of the Lord. Acknowledge that there are eIb. agnoscite, quia figurae sunt quae in divinis voluminibus scriptae sunt, & ideo tanquā spirituales & non tanquam carnales, examinate & intelligito quae dicuntur, si enim quasi carnales ista suscipitis laedant vos & non alunt, est enim & in Evangelio littera quae occidit.figures in the Scriptures, and examine and understand those things that are spoken as spirituall men not as carnall, for if you take these things as carnall, they will hurt you and not nourish you: for there is a letter that killeth in the Gospell as well as in the Law, there is a letter in the Gospell which killeth him that understandeth it not spiritually, and then follow the words above alleaged. For if thou follow the letter in these words, unlesse ye eate my flesh and drinke my blood, the letter killeth.
Thus having freed this passage, I might proceed to the examination of your next Section, yet foreign, as before I have done in Tertullian and Saint Austin, so I will now cleare other places in this Fathers Workes, and proove him to be a thorough man for us every where. I will follow the order of his bookes in the edition at Basil, that you may speedily with a wet finger turne to every cotation.
First, cast I pray you a looke to his ninth fHom. 9. in Lev. Non haereas in sanguine carnis, sed disce potius sanguinem verbi, & audi ipsum tibi dicentem, hic sanguis mens est qui pro vobu effunditur in remissionem peccatorum.Homilie; Thou who art come to Christ the true Priest, who by his blood hath reconciled thee to his Father, sticke not in the blood of the flesh, but learne rather the blood of the Word, and heare him saying to thee, This is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sinnes. He who is instructed in the mystery of the Sacraments, knoweth both the flesh and blood of the Word of God. You who presse the letter and urge the carnall eating of the flesh of Christ with the mouth, sticke in the blood of the flesh, but we who feede on Christ by faith, receive the blood of the Word, and eate the flesh and blood of the Word of God in our heart according to Origens wholesome advise.
Secondly, in his 16 Homily upon gBibere dicimur sanguinem Christi nonsolum Sacra… … ritu, sed & cum sermones eius … pi…us in quibus vita consistit.Numbers, there is a passage paralell to this, Who can eate flesh and drinke blood? he answereth, the Christian people, the faithfull heare these words, and embrace them, unlesse ye eate my flesh and drinke my blood ye have no life in you, because my flesh is meate indeed, He that spake this was wounded for our sinnes, and we are said to drinke his blood, not onelyonly in the rite of the Sacrament, (when we drinke of the consecrated cup) but also when we receive his sayings, in which life consisteth, as himselfe saith, I. b. quis est iste populus qui in usu habet sanguinem bibe…e, populus fidelis, populus Christianus audit has, complectit eum qui dicit nisi manducaveritis carnem filij hominis.the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life, and a little after hee concludeth, thou therefore art the true people of Israel, which knowest how to eate the flesh and drinke the blood of the Word of God. In this passage, with one blow he cuts off both your carnall manducation, and your halfe communion, the people as you heare drinke of the blood of Christ both in the Sacrament and out of it, but how? with the mouth? nay but by faith, therefore he saith, not that all Christian people drinke it, but populus fidelis, the people that hath faith in his words, and by receiving his sayings drinke his blood, both at the communion and at other times in hearing and reading the Word.
Thirdly, he is constant in this his figurative and spirituall interpretation of the words of our Saviour in the 6. of Iohn, for in his 23 Homilie upon the booke of hHom. in Num. c. 28. Hom. 23. Iudaei carnali sensu comedunt carnis Agni, nos autem comedamus carnem verbi Dei, ipse en…m dixit nisi comederitis carnes meas non hab…bitis vitam in vobis, hoc quod modo loqu mur carne… sunt … Dei.Numbers, he harpeth upon the same string, Christ our Passeoveris offered for us, let the Iewes in a carnall sense eate the flesh of a Lambe, but let us eate the flesh of the Word of God, for he saith unlesse ye eate my flesh ye have no life in you, this that … now speake is the flesh of the Word of God. If you can eate words with your mouth, and chew them with your teeth, you may in Origens judgemen eate the flesh of Christ with your mouth: but if you cannot do that, then according to our English proverbiall speech, eate your owne words, and retract your grosse and carnall assertion.
Fourthly, I presse you with a most materiall and considerable passage in iIn Mat. c. 15. Ille cibu… q… sanctificatur per verbism Dei per que obsecrationem, juxta id quod habet materiale in ventrē abit, & in secessum eijcitur, caeterum iuxta precationem quae ills accessit Prop…ne fidei fit utilis, efficiens ut perspicax siat animus spect… ad id … …ile est: nec mat…a panis, sed super illum dictus … est … prode… non indignè Domino comedenti illum. E… h…c qui… … … symbolico que corpo…e Multa porro & de ipso verb… … q…d factum est c…ro verus que cibu… qu…m qui cum ede…it … … in aeternum quem nullus malus potest edere.Origen concerning the matter of bread, which he calleth the typicall and symbolicall body of Christ, and saith, it goeth into the bellie and is cast out in the draught; but for Christ himselfe, and his flesh, he saith, that it is the true meate, which whosoever eates shall live for ever, which no wicked man can eate. I am sure wicked men can and doe eate of the bread after consecration: it is not then in Origens judgement Christs flesh. I pray also resolve me what is that S. Origen calls the matter of bread which he tearmes Christs typicall and symbolicall body, and saith it goeth into the belly, &c. you dare not say Christs body. For it is blasphemy in the highest degree, to say that his glorified body passeth through the guts and is cast out into the draught: Substance of bread you say there is none, and to call accidents a body and the matter or materiall part of bread, is as absurd in speech as it is in sense, that a man can void tasts, and colours, and figures without substance.
Fiftly, I alleadge against you in the same Commentarie upon Saint Matthew, his interpretation of the words of the kIn Mat. Tract. 35. Edite, …oc est corpus meum, panis iste quem Deus verbum corpus suum esse fatetur, verbum est nutritorium animarum, & potus iste quem Deus verbū sanguinem suu… fatetur verbum est …tans & …nebrians …orda biben…um.institution, which can no way stand with your doctrine of Transubstantiation, Take eate saith he, This is my body, the bread which God the Word saith to be his body, is the Word which nourisheth the soule, the Word which proceeds from Gods mouth by which man liveth, bread, the heavenly bread which is set upon that Table, of which it is written. Thou hast prepared a table before me. And the drinke which God the Word calls his blood, is the Word making glad the hearts of the drinkers. Marke I beseech you, hee saith that Christ calleth bread his body, which he could not but by a trope or figure, sith bread and his body are substantiae disparatae, substances of divers kinds, which cannot in truth and propriety of speech one be called the other. Secondly, hee saith that this bread is the foode of soules, and this drinke refresheth and maketh glad the hearts of them that drinke: it is the foode of soules, not bodies, and the drinke of the heart, not of the mouth, if wee beleeve this Father.
Sixtly, I retort your owne allegation against you, out of the fift lIn divers, loc. Evangal. Hom 5▪ Intrat & nunc Domi… sub …ectum credemium dupl…ci figur… ve…more, &c.Homily. The Lord (saith hee) even now comes under the roofe of Beleevers two manner of waies: The one when thou entertainest into thy house the Governours or Pastours of the Church, for by them the Lord enters into thy house, and by them thou becommest his Host. The other manner is, when thou takest that holy and uncorrupted banquet, when thou dost enjoy the bread and cup of life, eatest and drinkest the body and blood of our Lord, then our Lord doth enter under thy roofe, wherefore humbling thy selfe imitate the Centurion, and say, Lord I am not worthy that thou come under my roofe. Observe I pray you as before, that the faithfull enjoy the cup of life as well as the bread, whereof you utterly deprive them, and that by roofe hee meanes the heart which entertaines Christ, not the mouth. That which S. E. addeth (suppose the soule bee wicked, this Author saith Christ goeth In) he adds of his owne, Origen saith no such thing, that Christ e…ters into the soule or heart of a wicked man, but all that he saith is this, where hee enters in unworthily, he enters in to the condemnation of him that receives, that is, where the party unworthily eates of that bread, and drinkes of that cup: for in that bread Christ entereth in his typicall and symbolicall body, as hee calls it before, not in his true and naturall, which hee proved unto us there, no wicked man can eate.
Seventhly, I conclude this Section with a testimony out of the last booke of mDe Christ. Hom dial. 3. Si ut obloquuntur isti carne destitutus erat & exanguis, cuiusmodi carnis, cujus corporis & qualis tandem sanguinis signa & magines …anem & …oculum mi…istravit? …ussit que per …a … … … re…ovate.Origen, If as these men cavill or upbraid us Christ was destitute of flesh, and without blood, of what flesh, of what body, and of what blood did be administer the bread and the cup as signes and images, commanding his Disciples by them to renew the memory of himselfe. Heare you how briefe he speakes, how fully in the language of the reformed Churches, bread and the cup are not the very body and blood of Christ by Transubstantiation, but signes, images, and memorialls thereof by representation. And if now you are cast as your conscience will tell you, you are by severall verdicts of Origen, thanke your selfe who would needs referre the matter to him among others, and bee tried by the bench of antiquity, whereby you are clearely overthrowne as you will be in your owne Court by your owne feed judge Gratian, your great Canonist, of whom in the next Paragraph.