Rejoinder to Bristows Reply, Part 2 · Book 7 · Chapter 6
CAP. VI.
Sander.
Master Iewell hath not conferred the supper with the sixt of S. Iohn, as it ought to be.
Iewell.
Christ in S. Iohn speaking of spirituall eating faith, made no mention of any figure: But in his supper he added an outward Sacrament to the same spirituall eating, which the fathers oft call a figure.
Sander.
If spirituall eating by faith be only spoken of, why saith he dabo I will giuegive, when spirituall eating was alreadie giuen?
Fulke.
Because he would continue his giuing, as he had done before, and accomplish his passion, by which his flesh was made meate.
Sander.
The perfourmance doeth expound the promise, especially when he saith: this is, &c.
Fulke.
Here is no newe promise, but a continuance of the olde, of spirituall eating by faith.
Sander.
The fathers, who call Christs supper a figure, must needes meane such a figure as was promised.
Fulke.
There was no figure promised in the sixth of Iohn: therfore they meane another thing then was there promised or spoken of.
Iewell.
Master Harding putteth no difference betweene things perteining seuerally to the body and the spirite. Origen. in Cantic.
Sander.
Origen doth speak of them, who reading yt book would perhaps apply ye names of louelove there vsed, carnally.
Fulke.
Prolog. in Cantic. he speaketh of diuers meate of the inward man, and of the outwarde man. The meat of the outward man, is agreable to his nature, bodily and earthly. The meat of the inward man, is the bread which came downe from heauen, &c.
Sander
You hauehave set forth the booke of canticles in the vulgar tongue, contrary to Origens iudgemēt, to be reade of eueryevery wanton boy or girle.
Fulke.
As though that booke was not in the vulgar tongue in his time, when it was in the Greeke tongue. Beside that he saith, the litle ones can take no great hurt if they reade it, although it bee meate for perfect men.
Iewell.
The bread is a figure.
Sander.
Before consecration, S. Ambrose confesseth it to be a figure, but not after the wordes are said ouer it.
Fulke.
He confesseth it to be bread before, and to be called the bodye of Christ after consecration, and that the body of Christ is signified thereby. De myst. Cap. 9. Yea he calleth it a figure of the body & bloud of Christ: De Sacram lib. 4 Cap. 5. For it can be no figure of Christ before consecration. Touching Damascen, and Rabanus Maurus, I will not striue, because they are both later wnters then 600. yeres, although the later be cleare against this peece of Popery, the other not clearly for it.
Iewell.
The Sacrament (saith Augustine) is receiued from the Lords table: Of some vntounto life, of some vntounto destruction: The thing it self whereof it is a Sacrament (yt is the body of Christ) is receiued of eueryevery man to life, & of no man vntounto destructiō, whosoeuer be partakers of it.
Sander.
Here is a heape of falshood and lies.
Fulke.
Here is an impudent cauillation.
Sander.
The thing of the Sacrament, is not the body of Christ sitting in heauen, but the company of Saints, and the vnitie of the bodie and bloud of Christ, not his natural bodie, but his mysticall bodie the church. Therfore, he saith not simply: The Sacrament, but the Sacrament of this thing, that is to say, of the body and bloud of Christ, which fiue words, M. Iewel hath left out.
Fulke.
These fiue words help you as much as fiue egges, whereof foure be rotten. For Augustine by them vnderstandeth the flesh & bloud, which Christ promised to giuegive, which if it be not the same bodie which sitteth in heauen, that bodie which sitteth in heauen is not giuen (by his iudgement) in the Sacrament. For thus he writeth vponupon these words of Christ, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath life euerlasting: Therefore he hath not this life, which eateth not this bread nor drinketh this bloud. For temporall life men may hauehave without it, but eternall they cannot hauehave at all. Therefore, he that eateth not his flesh, nor drinketh his bloud, hath not life in himselfe: and he that eateth his flesh & drinketh his bloud, hath life eternall. And that he saith, euerlasting life, answereth to both: it is not so in this meate which we take for sustentation of the life of this bodie: for he which taketh it not, shall not liue: and yet he shall not liue which shall take it. For it may be, that by olde age or sickenesse, or some chance, many which shal take it, may die: but in-this meat & drink, that is, in ye bodie and bloud of our Lorde, it is not so, for both he which taketh it not, hath not life: & he which taketh it, hath life, & yt verily eternal. Therefore he will hauehave this meat & drink vnderstood to be ye fellowship of his body & his members, which is ye holy church in his saints, and faithful ones predestinated & called, & iustified, & glorified. Wherof ye first is alreadie done, yt is predestination, ye second & third is both done & is a doing, & shalbe done, ye is, calling & iustification: but ye fourth is now in hope, & shalbe in deede, yt is glorification. The Sacrament of this thing, yt is, of ye vnitie of ye body & bloud of Christ, in some places daily, in some places by certeine distance of dayes, is prepared in ye Lords table, to some vntounto life, to some vntounto destruction. But the thing it self, wherof also it is a Sacrament, is to eueryevery man vntounto life, to no man vntounto destruction, whosoeuer shalbe partaker of it.
You hauehave therefore gained thus much by your cauilling: that neither the flesh and bloud of Christ, promised in the sixt of Iohn, nor the thing of the Sacrament is the bodie of Christ which sitteth in heauen, but the participation of his mysticall bodie, and the fellowship or communion of his bodie, and the members therof, which is the assurance of eternall life. But where you saye, the Sacrament is that naturall body of Christ which sitteth in heauen, you saye beside your booke: for neither Augustine, nor any ancient father did euer say, that the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ was the body of Christ, otherwise then after a certeine manner of speaking, as Augustine saith.
Sander.
The materiall bread was prepared by the Baker, ergo the Sacrament prepared in the table, is the bodie of Christ.
Fulke.
I denie the argument. The Baker prepareth not the Sacrament, although he prepare some parte of ye earthly matter that is required vntounto it, more then the sexton prepareth the sacrament of baptisme, by powring of water into the font.