Discussion of the Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation, Part 2 · Division 2
Diuision 2.
HIs first end… for three leaues together is to pr… that there is nothing in the Gospel, whereby it N. P.may appeare that those words of our Sauiour, This is my Body, may not be vnderstood figuratiuely as well as other speeches of the like kinde in Scripture; as when, aGen. 41. 26.Seuen kine are said to be seuen yeeres; bApoc. 17. 1….ten Hornes ten Kings; c1. Cor. 10. 4.The Rocke was Christ, &c. So he; not telling withall his Reader (as he ought to hauehave done, like an ingenuous solide Author) the many differences noted by dLib. 1. de Euchar c. 11.Bellarmine and other Catholike Authors soluing this very Obiection, betweene Christs literall words, This is my Bodie, and other figuratiue speeches; these being simply and without any other explication vniformally recounted by three Euangelists, as also by Saint Paul, in their historicall narrations: whereas where the Lambe is called the Passeouer, the Rocke is said to be Christ, &c. Something is still added in the text, to explicate the literall and true meaning of them. The Lambe (for example) is called in the same place the sacrifice of the Passeouer: Christ is said to be a spirituall Rocke, &c. And the very scope of visions and parables doth still shew in what sense the words of them are literally to be taken: …s the seauen kine, ten hornes, &c.
Besides in all such figuratiue speeches, Semper predicatur de disparato disparatum: One thing is said to be another, which cannot be …dually or specifically the …ame, but wholly different in nature from it. A man, (for example) as Christ was, cannot … …narily be a Vine, a Lyon, a Rocke, &c. But in Christs words, This is my bodie, no such absurdor impossible thing is affirmed; but onelyonly that the substance which he had in his hands, was his bodie made by the miraculous conuersion of bread into it; Christs words being operatiue (saith eS. Ambros. de myster. cap. 9.S. Ambrose) and omnipotently able to make that to be which is signified by them in in these words. Perhaps thou wilt say; I see another thing: How prooue you to me, that I take the bodie of Christ? And this remaineth yet for vsus to prooue, that it is not what nature framed, but what benediction hath consecrated: and that the force of benediction is greater then the force of nature: because euen nature it selfe is changed by benediction. Moses holding a wand in his hand, did cast it from him, and it became a serpent. Now if mans benediction were of such force, as that it could change nature; what say we of that same diuine Consecration, where the words of our Lord and Sauiour doe worke? For this Sacrament which thou takest is made by the speech of Christ. And if the speech of Elias was of such pow… as to draw fire from heauen; shall not Christs words be of fo…ce to change the formes of the elements? Thou hast read of the workes of the whole world: Because he spake the word, they were made; he commaunded, and they were created. The word of Christ then, which of nothing could make that which was not, cannot it not as well change those things which are into that which before they were not? Since it is not a lesse matter to giuegive new natures vntounto things then to change natures, &c. fLib. 4. de Sacram.It is indeede Bread before the words of the Sacraments: But after that consecration is once added vntounto it, of bread it is made the flesh of Christ, &c.
gS. August. Serm. 28. de verb. Dom.I hauehave told you, (saith S. Augustine) that before Christs words that which is offered on the Altar is called bread: but when Christs words are vttered, it is called no more bread, but his bodie. And explicating the Title of the 33. Psalme, wherein these words are written, Et ferebatur in manibus suis; And-he was carried in his owne hands: Who (saith he, conc. 1.) is able to conceiue how this can happen in man? For who is carried in his owne hands? A man may be carried in the hands of an other: But in his owne hands he cannot be carried. How this may be literally vnderstood in Dauid, we finde not. But in Christ we doe. For Christ was carried in his owne hands, when giuing his bodie he said, This is my Body. For then did he carry that body in his owne hands, &c.
When as Christ himselfe (saith S. Cyril) affirmeth and saith of the bread, This is my Bodie, who may presume to make any doubt thereof? And when the same Christ confirmeth and saith, This is my Blood, who can doubt, and say it is not his blood? Againe, hCyril. Catech. 4. mystagog.Let vsus not consider it as meere bread, or bare wine. For it is the bodie and blood of Christ. For although the sense teacheth thee that it is bread and wine, yet let thy faith confirme thee, that thou iudge not the thing it selfe by thy taste. And a little after; This knowing for most certaine, that the bread which we see is not bread, although thy taste thinketh it to be bread, but that it is the bodie of Christ: and the wine which we behold, although to the sense of tasting it seemeth to be wine, yet that it is not wine indeede, but the blood of our Sauiour, &c.
iS. Chrysost. homil. 60. ad popul. Antioch.Let vsus beleeue God (saith S. Chrysostome) in eueryevery thing; not gain-saying him, though what he saith may seeme absurd to our sense and cogitation. I beseech thee therefore, that his speech may ouercome our sense and reason. Which point we are to obserue in all things: but especially in holy mysteries; not onelyonly beholding those things which lie before vsus; but also laying hold of his words; for his words cannot deceiue vsus: but our sense may easily be deceiued. And elsewhere lib. 3. de Sacerd. O miracle! saith he: O the bountie of God! he that sitteth aboue with his Father, euen in the same instant of time is handled with the hands of all, and deliuereth himselfe to such as are willing to entertaine and imbrace him. Againe, Elias did leaue his garment to his disciple. But the Sonne of God ascending to heauen did leaue his flesh. But Elias by leauing it was deuested thereof: Whereas Christ leauing his flesh to vsus, yet ascending to heauen there also he hath it.
AFter that he hath thus spent some part of his railing T. G.Rhetorick in traducing & vilifying this Protestantical Diuine his Aduersary, asignorant, vnacquainted with the Authors he citeth, a petty writer, a meere collector, a filcher, a falsifier, &c. and disgraced his Discourse as consisting of proofes tedious, and superficiall, and allegations impertinent maimedly and corruptly produced; and (that nothing may escape him without some nip) written with a very bad hand, which he taketh to be his owne; and the partie therefore one (it may be) not so fit to write for Ladies as himselfe, being both a man of worth (as before he intimated himselfe to be) and writing a faire hand too, though not very Scholerlike, as the worke it selfe sheweth: Hee commeth now to deale with the matter and substance of the Discourse.
Where the first Proposition, that he vndertaketh to oppugne, as I propound it, is this:
These words in the Gospel, This is my Body, may well be taken figuratiuely.
(Which how it may be, I shew by some instances: to wit; these other in Scripture; kGen. 41. 26.The seuen kine, are seauen yeeres: lApoc. 17. 12The ten hornes, are ten Kings: m1 Cor. 10. 4.The Rocke was Christ: or as those other in ordinary speech; This is Caesar: That is Cicero, &c.
Nor is there any thing in the Gospel that may enforce the contrarie.
Now this worthy man that taxeth me for a meere Collector, and a filcher out of Bellarmine, hath nothing here to answere, but what he fetcheth from Bellarmine, whom he saith I filch all from.
But let vsus see how well he vrgeth and maketh good Bellarmines answeres.
1. The words are simply, and without any other explication, simply and vniformally (for so in his scholerlike manner he speaketh) recounted by three Euangelists and Saint Paul. And therefore they cannot be taken figuratiuely. For that must follow, or else he speaketh nothing to the purpose. We shall not neede to goe farre to discouer the weakenesse of this consequence. The nMath. 26. 27, 28. Mark. 14. 23, 24. Luke 22. 20.three Euangelists, and o1. Cor. 11. 25.S. Paul speaking of the other part of this Sacrament, doe all simply and without another explication vniformally (to retaine his owne precise tearmes) say, This Cup is, &c. therefore the Cup cannot be taken figuratiuely there: which if it be not, they must inuent a new Transsubstantiation of some other matter or mettall then the p Luk. 2…. 20. 1. Cor 11. 21.fruite of the Vine, either into the New Testament, or into Christs blood.q Math. 26. 27, 8. Mark. 14. 24.
§ 2. When the Lambe is called the Passeouer; and the Rocke said to be Christ, something is added in the Text to explaine the literall true meaning of them. The Lambe for example in the same place is called the Sacrifice of the Passeouer. Christ is said to be a spirituall Rocke, &c.
1. It is not true that he saith; that in the same place where the Lambe is called the Passeouer, the same Lambe is called the Sacrifice of the Passeouer: There is no more said, Exod. 12. 11. but this; Ye shall eate it in hast; it is the Lords Passeouer: there being nothing by way of explication there added. But after indeede verse 27. not the Lambe precisely, but the whole Seruice is said to be the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeouer. When your Children shal aske you, What seruice is this that you obserue? Then shall you say, It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeouer.
Neither is Christ said to be a spirituall Rocke. 1. Cor. 10. 4. But the reall Rocke is called a spirituall Rocke: as the Manna, and the water that issued from it are called r1. Cor. 10. 3, 4.spirituall meate and drinke: And that Rocke for matter corporall, for vse spirituall, is said, as Augustine well obserueth, sNon dicit, Petra significabat Christum; sed, Petra erat Christus. Aug. in Leu. q. 57. & Beda; & Haimo in 1. Cor. 11. Petra i…m erat in creatura, & per actionis modum nuncupata est nomine. Christi, quem significabat: sicut & Isaac Christus erat, cum ad se immolandum ligna portabat. Idem Aug. de Trinit. lib. 2. cap. 6.not to signifie, but to be Christ: Nothing being added more to intimate a figuratiue sense there, then heere in the wordes, This is my Body, which two speeches both tAug. in Ioan. tract. 45.Augustine and uCaietan. in Thom. part. 3. quaest. 57. art. 1.Caietan compare the one with the other.
2. It is senselesse thus to reason; In some places where figuratiue speeches are vsed, something is added to explicate them: therefore wheresoeuer nothing is added to explicate the figure, the words are not, or cannot be figuratiuely taken.
3. In many of the instances giuen, no such explication is added; as these, xApoc. 17. 12The ten Hornes are ten Kings; yGen. 41. 26.The a Mat. 28 9.seven Kine are seuen yeeres: This is Caesar: This Cicero, &c.
4. In the very Context there is added that which sheweth the sense to bee figuratiue. For that which is called Christs blood by the Euangelist in the one verse, is expresly said to be the fruit of the vine in the next verse. And that which is called Christs body by the Apostle, is immediately after, more then once or twice expounded to bee b1 Cor. …1. 24, 26, 27, 28.bread.
§ 3. The very scope (saith he, or Bellarmine by him) of visions and parables doth still shew in what sense the words are literally to be taken; as, the seuen kine, ten hornes, &c.
And doth not the very nature of signes and Sacraments shew in what sense the wordes vsed of, or in them, are to be taken? to wit, figuratiuely and symbolically, not properly or essentially. For what are Signes and Sacraments but reall parables? both therefore tearmed Mysteries, as cforeign. Chry…st. in 1 Cor. hom 7. Idem fere Aug. de doct. Christ. l. 3. c. 1. & contr. Max. l. 3. c. 22,Chrysostome noteth; because one thing is seene in the one, as heard in the other, and some other thing vnderstood. Or what is more v…uall then (as dAug. in Leuit q. 57. & epist. 23. & ep. 102. & ad Simplic. l. 2. q. 3. & in Ioā. tract. 63.Augustine and eAutor de Cardin. Christi oper. serm. de Coen. Heruaeus sub Anselmi nomine in 1 Cor. 10. Thom. de differ. verb. diuin. & human. &c.others well obserue) that Signes and Sacraments be called by the names of those things, which they are signes and sacraments of? What Sacrament also is there, wherein or whereof such speeches are not vsed? Circumcision is called fGen. 17. 13.the Covenant: the pasohall Lambe, gExod. 1…. 11.the Passeouer: the Rocke, h1 Cor. 10. 4.Christ: Bap…sme, iTi. …. 5.the Laver of Regeneration. And in like manner, saith kSicut secundum quendam modum sacramentum corpotis Christ… corpus Christi est, sacramentum sanguinis Christi, sanguis Christi…st; ita sacramentum fidei fides est. Aug. ep. 23.Augustine, is the bread Christ… body; the name of the thing signified (saith lTheodoret. dialog. 1.Theodoret) being giuen to the signe. So that whereas this worthy writer thus argueth out of Bellarmine; In visions and parables the very scope euer sheweth that the things spoken are to bee vnstoode figuratiuely: But these places, the seven kine, and the ten hornes, are visions and parables: And therefore the things therein spoken are to be taken figuratiuely. Why may not we as wel reason on this wise? The very nature of signes and sacraments leadeth vntounto this, that when the names of the things whereof they are signes and sacraments are given vntounto them, it is to bee vnderstood not properly, but figuratiuely. But it is a Sacrament wherein and whereof these speeches are vsed, This is my bodie, and This is my blood: These wordes therefore, wherein the name of the thing signified is giuen to the Sacrament, are to bee vnderstood figuratiuely. And so hee hath from his owne grounds by due proportion somewhat more to conclude then was before required; to wit, not onelyonly, that there is nothing that may enforce vsus to expound them literally, but that there is somewhat of moment to induce vsus to expound them figuratiuely.
§ 4. In all such figuratiue speeches (saith he further out of Bellarmine) Semper praedicatur de disparato disparatum; One thing is said to be another, when it cannot be indi…idually or specifically the same, but wholly different in nature from it. A man for example, as Christ was, cannot but similitudinarily be a Rock, a Vine, or a Lion. But in Christs words, This is my body, no such absurd or impossible thing is affirmed; but only that the substance which he had in his hands was his body made by the miraculous conversion of bread into it.
1. In this speech of our Sauiour, This is my body, as well as in that speech of the Prophet, mEzec. 5. 5.This is Ierusalem, or in that speech of the Apostle, n1. Co. 10. 4The Rocke was Christ, is one thing, to wit, bread (as is afterward prooued both by the course of the context, the words of the Apostle, and the doctrine of the ancient Fathers) said to bee an other thing, to wit, the flesh of Christ, which is wholly different in nature from it. Nor can this worthy Disputer prooue thē contrary, vnlesse you grant him the point in question, which heere hee shamefully beggeth to make good his Assertion, to wit, that that which Christ had in his hands was his bodie made by the miraculous conversion of bread into it?
2. A man may as well be a rocke; as a rocke may bee a man, or bread may be flesh. And why was it not as possible for the rocke to be turned into Christ, and so to become Christ, as for bread to bee turned into the bodie of Christ, and so to be the flesh of Christ? that the one might be vnderstood properly as well as the other. If they will say, It is impossible that the rocke should bee turned into the flesh of Christ, before Christ was incarnate, I might answer them, as they vse to do vsus; that God is able to do all things. And questionlesse it is *Yea some of them in effect confesse the one to be as well possible as the other: Ante incarnationem Christi potuit. Eucharistia fuisse ita vera sicut nunc. Et tum fuisset sub speciebu… verum & idē corpus Christi illud quod sumptum est de virgine sicut modò. &c. Gabr. Biel. in Can. Miss. lect. 47.as possible that the rock should be turned into that flesh, that as yet was not; as that a little thinne wafer cake, or the compasse of it at least, should containe Christs whole and entire body here on earth, while the very selfe same indiuiduall body should be whole and entire still in heaven. A creature may as well be, and yet not be at once, as a naturall body may at the same time be wholly and entire thus contracted on earth, and yet whole and entire also in his full stature in heauen. Yea how is it not a thing absurd and impossible, that Christs body sitting whole and entire at the table, should hold the selfe-same body whole and entire in its two hands on the table, and should giuegive the selfe-same body away whole and entire ouer the table to twelue seuerall persons, to goe seuerally into each of their mouthes still whole and entire, and to become so many whole and entire humane organicall bodies in their mouthes, as in chewing they made pieces of that that was giuen them, and yet the selfe-same body that they did thus take and eate, remaine sitting there still vnstirred and vntouched? If these things be not absurda absurdorum absurdissima (as he speaketh) as monstrous absurdities as euer were any, I know not what are.
3. Obserue how these men that cannot endure to heare vsus say, This, or that thing is impossible: yet tell vsus themselues of many impossibilities; and that euen then also when they speake of these miraculous mysteries, in the confuting one of another. It is impossible (saith this worthy writer) for a man, as Christ was, otherwise then similitudinarily, to be a rock, or a vine. oThom. Aqui. contr. Gent. l. 1. c. 48It is impossible (saith Aquinas) that a man should be an Asse. pEst impossibile quod panis sit corpus Christi. Gloss. ad Grat. de conscr. d. 2. c. Panis estIt is impossible (saith the Glosse) that bread should be Christs bodie. qImpossibilis est planè haec sententia, nisi tropic è accipiatur. Bellar. de Euchar. l. 1. c. 1.It is altogether impossible (saith Bellarmine) that this sentence, This bread is my body, should be true properly. rGabr. Biel. in Can. Miss. lect. 80.It is impossible (saith Biel) that Christs body should be broken or divided and so bee spoiled, being impassible. sThon. Aq. sum. part 3. q. 81. art. 3.It is impossible (saith Aquinas) that Christ in his last Supper should giuegive his body impassible. tIdem ibid. q. …7. a. 1.It is impossible that his body being now impassible should be altered in shape or hew. uIbid. q. 76. a. 8.It is impossible that Christs body in his proper shape should be seene in any other place, but that one onelyonly wherein he is definitiuely. xIbid. art. 6.It is impossible that the substantiall forme of bread should remaine after consecration: or that the substance of bread and wine should abide there. yIbid. q. 75. art. 2.It is impossible that Christs body by a locall motion should come to bee in the Sacrament. “Ibid. q. 76. a. 6.It is impossible that the same thing should both rest and mooue at once. “Bellar. de Euchar. l. 3. c. 16.It is impossible that the same body should by locall motion arriue in diuers severall places at once. It is impossible that Christs should personally assume the bread in the Sacrament. *Thom. sum. p. 3. q. 75. a. 3.It is impossible that Christs body should bee in the Sacrament any other way but by the conversion of bread into it. All these and many other impossibilities they tell vsus of, that cannot endure to heare vsus speake of any. Now if they will tell vsus why these things are impossible, we shall as soone tell them againe in their owne wordes, why such a Transubstantiation and reall presence, as they dreame of, is impossible.z Ibid. a. 2.
4. How doth this follow: There is no impossible thing affirmed in Christs words: Therefore they must needs bee taken properly, or they cannot bee taken figuratiuely? Hee might by the same reason prooue that the Apostles words where he saith of himselfe, a1 Cor. 15. 3…I die dayly; or where he saith, bGal. 2. 19.I am crucified together with Christ; or where he saith of the Galathians that cGal. 3. 1.Christ was crucified among them; or the Psalmists as some fantasticall dVide Drus. quaest. l. 2. q. 39 & Paul. Rieium de anima coeli.Rabbines hauehave held, where hee saith of the Heavens, that ePsal. 19. 1.they relate Gods glory, &c. or our Sauiours, where hee saith, that fLuk. 16. 24.the tongue of the Rich mans soule was in torment; must of necessity be all vnderstood literally and properly, because there is nothing simply impossible affirmed in them.
§. 5. He telleth vsus in Conclusion; that the meaning of our Sauiour Christs wordes is this; The Substance which I hold in my hands is my Body made by the miraculous conuersion of bread into it. But where is ought in the Text that inti nateth this miraculous conuersion? yea if this were the sense of them, it should be made Christs body ere those wordes were spoken of it: Whereas hee and his associates commonly hold that this miraculous conuersion is wrought by those wordes, This is my body, and *In vltimo instanti, in quo pro…ertur vox vltima, ponitur effectus verborū in esse. Bellar. de Euchar. l 1. c. 11.is not effected till those wordes be all out; which they giuegive the Priest a speciall charge thereof gVno spiritu. tractim dicat. Cu…tel. Miss. in Missali.to vtter speedily with one breath. And here let this profound doughty Doctor giuegive an ignorant petty writer leaue to demand of him, what is ment by the word This, in those wordes, This is my body; (for I suppose hee will not be so absurd as the Glosser is, to say that hAd haec dico, quod per hanc dictionē, Hoc, nihil demonst…a…ur. Glos. ad Gr…t. de conscr. d. 2. c. Timorem & alii nonnulli apud Durand. ration. diuin. l 4. part. 2. in 6. part. Canon.Hoc or this there signifieth nothing at all:) or what that substance was (as hee speaketh) that Christ held in his hands when hee spake the word, Hoc, or this. If it were Christs body made before of bread, then the vttering of those wordes did not then, nor doth now worke any conuersion of the bread into Christs body: for nothing can bee turned into it selfe, or into that that already it is: or iSi substantia panis fuisset adhuc, quando Christus offerebat Apostolis cibum illum coelestem, pronomen, Hoc, demonstra…e… panem, & de pane dixis…et, quod esset corpus suum, &c. quod 'est impossibile. Christ. de Cap. Font. de necess. correct. schol. Theol. ad Sixt. 5. Pp. l. 1. c. 2.if it were bread still, (as for ought ap duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page peareth in the text, still it was) then must this needs bee the summe and sense of Christs wordes, This bread is my body: and so by his owne rule, when disparatum de disparato dicitur, one thing is said to be another different in nature from it, it must needs be taken figuratiuely.
§ 6. Well wotting that there was no such thing either in the Text, or gatherable (to vse his owne tearmes) out of it: hee would faine finde out some Author, that would say that for him, that the text it selfe will not; and alleagdeth therefore some few Testimonies. Concerning which I might well say, as hee saith, if I would doe as hee doth, that they hauehave beene answered long since by the L. Morney, the B. Morton, D. Fulke, and others, and hee doth not deale sincerely in concealing their Answers; and so turne my Reader over to them, as his manner is, when he hath nothing to answer. But I answer to them severally.
1. Ambrose is alleadged out of his bookes de Mysterijs, &c. and de Sacramentis: which bookes, howsoeuer iVide Rob. Coqui Censurā Patrum. edit. 2.for diuers passages of them, and phrases vsed in them, they may well be doubted of whether they were written by him or no; and Posseuine himselfe implieth that some hauehave denied it, when hee saith, that kCum reliquis paene omnibus Posseuin. apparat.all almost hold them to be his: and part of them (as we shall see anone) goeth commonly vnderunder another name: yet not to stand thereupon, but admit them for his. Nothing there said doth necessarily enforce any such Transubstantiation as the Romanists hold; yea some subsequent wordes, if they had beene annexed, would euidently speake against it.
For first, Ambrose there expressely teacheth, that the creatures of bread and wine still abide euen after Consecration, which vtterly ouerthroweth the Popish Transubstantiation. If (saith he) there were so much force in the word of the Lord, (in the worke of Creation) that those things began by it to be that before were not; how much more operatiue is it to cause lVt sint quae erant, & in aliud commutentur. Ambr. de sacram. l. 4. c. 4. citatus etiam à Lumbard. sentent. l. 4. d. 20. D. & Tho. Aqui. sum. p. 3. q. 7 8. a. 4.that things should be still what they were before, and be changed into another things. So that by this Ambroses confession the elements remaine still what they were, and yet are changed indeed, which wee deny not, into that which they were not; as waxe is turned into a seale, being annexed to a deed; though it remaine still for substance what erst it was.
2. That which Ambrose saith in the latter place, that mDe sacram. l. 4. c. 4.This bread is bread before the wordes sacramentall; but when consecration commeth to it, it is of bread made Christs flesh; that hee speaketh in these wordes nDe myster. c. 9.in the former place, which this mangler of him omitteth; oAnte benedictionem alia species nominatur; post consecrationē corpus Christi significatur.Before the blessing of the heauenly wordes is another kinde named, but after Consecrationis Christs body signified. And againe pDe sacram. l. 4. c. 4.in the latter place: Wine and water is put into the Cup, but by Consecration it becommeth blood. Thou wilt say, qSpeciem sanguinis non video; sed habet similitudinemI see no kind or shew of blood. But it hath (saith hee) a similitude of it. For as thou hast taken a similitude of death in (Baptisme, hee meaneth as lib. 3. cap. 7. so) rSimilinudinem pretiosi sanguinis bibis.thou drinkest a similitude of Christs precious blood, &c. And thereupon he concludeth, sDidicisti ergò, quia quod accipis, corpus est Christi.Thou hast learned now, that that which thou receiuest is Christs body. So that it is in regard of signification and similitude that the one is said to be Christs flesh, and the other his blood, as this Ambrose explicateth himselfe.
3. Expounding what manner of change hee meaneth, when he saith, They are changed into that which erst they were not. *De sacram. l. 4. c. 4. Tu ipse ante fuisti; sed era… vetus creatura: Posteaquam consecratus es, noua creatura esse cepisti.Thou thy selfe (saith he) wast before; but thou wast an old creature: after thou wast consecrated, thou begannest to be a new creature; which newnesse yet (as Tertullian well obserueth) importeth *Tam vetustatem hominis quam nouitatem ad moralem non substantialem differentiam pertinere defend…mus. Tertul. de resurr. carn.no corporall, but a spirituall change in the party so consecrated, not in substance, but in quality differing from what he was before.
4. In the next uDe sacram. l. 4. c. 5.Chapter, relating the wordes of their Church Liturgie then in vse, hee calleth that holy oblation, xQuod est figura corporis & sanguinis. D. n. l. c. y Ibid. c. 5.a figure of Christs body and blood: which they entreate God to accept of, 2Sicut suscipere dignatus es munera Abel, & sacrificiū Abrahae.as hee did Abels gifts, and Abrahams sacrifice, &c. which cannot bee vnderstood of the very reall sacrifice of Christ himselfe, vnlesse they will make the Priest an intercessor to God the Father in the behalfe of Christ Iesus. Of which also more hereafter.
2. Out of Augustine are cited two Testimonies. In the former whereof he sheweth, how iudicious he is in the choice of his allegations, (that for which he taxeth the Diuine he dealeth with) and how well seene in and acquainted with the Authors he alleadgeth. There are diuers Sermons set out vnderunder Augustines name, (for this is no new thing with them to forge daily as well new workes, as new writers) which they cite many of them, sometime vnderunder the name of Augustine, sometime vnderunder the name of this or that other Father: for they can finde Fathers for their bastards as they list themselues. Of these many by aBellar. de scrip. Eccles.Bellarmine, bBaron annal. tom. 4.Baronius, cEras. in censurErasmus, dLouaniens. in censur. append tom. 10.the Diuines of Louaine, and diuers others are confessed to bee meere counterfeits. One whereof is the Sermon de Verb. Dom. 28. which this worthy Writer here citeth; and indeede is nothing else but a whole Chapter verbatim taken out of the fift booke of that worke de Sacramentis, which he cited last before as Ambroses. So that he doth herein as Captaines, that wanting of their full number borrow one of an other, and so produce the same party by one name to day as one mans souldier, and by an other name the next day, as an other mans souldier, a gun-man (it may be) to day, and a pike-man to morrow. For this Author was but euen now Ambrose; and now he is sodainely become Augustine; as if some such spel had beene said ouer him, as they suppose to be said ouer their Hoast. And thus (as their common guise is) they make their coined creatures, like plaiers on a stage, sometime to act one part, and sometime another. And this may well giuegive iust cause to suspect the authoritie of the Author, when sometime he is Ambrose, and sometime Augustine, and it may well be neither. For he is hardly euer beleeued that is taken once in two tales. And this Erasmus his annotation would hauehave giuen him some hint of, had he beene so well acquainted with the Authors he citeth as he would seeme to be. Besides that this Ambrose, or Augustine, or what euer he be, when he is cited to giuegive in euidence, saith nothing but this, that that which before Christs words is called bread, is after them called no more bread, but Christs bodie. Which vnlesse it be meant, that it is not called onelyonly bread, but Christs body also, eDeut. 5. 3. Ier. 3. 22, 23. Hos. 6. 6. Non enim Dominus respuit sacrificia; sed non vult illa, si ab…que miserico…dia sint. Bellarm. de Euchar. l. 1. c. 7.which manner of speaking is not vnusuall) he will not deny himselfe to be most manifestly vnture: for he acknowledgeth a little after that euen after consecration the Apostle diuers times so tearmeth it. And if it be so vnderstood, what maketh it either against vsus, who acknowledge (with the Auncients,) that it is commonly called, as all other signes ordinarily, by the name of the thing it signifieth; or for them, who should prooue, not that it is commonly called Christs body, but that it is really and essentially it. It is no more then as if one had said; Waxe before it is set to a deede and imprinted, is called waxe: but after that, it is not called waxe, but a Seale. Meane while it may hence appeare, that either this Writer (what euer he be) is scarce well acquainted with the writings of those Fathers that he citeth, or else he is wretchedly bent to abuse and delude those that he dealeth with.
The latter Authoritie is taken out of Augustines first Sermon on Psal. 33. wherein he saith, that Christ was carried in his owne hands, when he said, This is my body. And here againe this great Doctor sheweth either his little acquaintance with Augustine, or his fraudulent dealing with those whom he desireth to delude. For Augustine repeating againe in the very next Sermon what hee had deliuered in the former, putteth in those words, which shew what his meaning was: When he commended (saith he) vntounto them his body and blood, he tooke into his hands, what the faithfull know: (that was nothing, they themselues will graunt, but fMath. 26. 26.bread, when he tooke it.) And gIpse se portabat quod…m modo. Aug. ibid. conc. 2.he carried himselfe after a manner, when he said, This is my body. And if you will know what that, after a manner, meaneth, Augustine himselfe will best tell you, where he saith elsewhere; hSacramenta plae…unque etiam ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt, &c. Ergò secundū quendam modum sacramentum corporis Christi; corpus Christi est. Aug. epist. 23.The Sacrament of Christs body is after a manner Christs body: because Sacraments for the most part be are the names of those things whereof they are Sacraments. After a manner then it is the body of Christ. And yet is it bread still. For so Augustine againe iAug. de ver. Dom. Serm. 3….elsewhere; kPanem quē Dominus gestauit in manibus.It was Bread that Christ carried in his hands at his last Supper: lIpsam coenam fide quotidiè manducamus: credimus in Christum quem fide accipimus. Modicū accipimus, & in corde saginamur.Which Supper we to this day eate daily by Faith; and in it by faith receiue Christ, in whom we beleeue; and taking a little modicum, are spiritually fatted.
His third Author is S. Cyril, that should be Bishop of Ierusalem a little after the time of Constantine the Great: An Author not without good cause shrewdly suspected. VnderUnder his name our Popish Father-forgers hauehave set out diuers things: Among others an Epistle of his that should be written to S. Augustine of S. Ieromes decease, and of the miracles that he wrought. Which Epistle is so grosse and ridiculous, writing of the death of one that many a long yeere out-liued him that should write it, that albeit many of them are not ashamed to mLensorus de purgator. Eckius hom. 2. Dominic. 3. Aduent. Peres. de tradit. & alii.cite it as Cyrils for the maintenance of sundry Popish points, yet others of them are enforced nBellarm. censur. apud Posseui….to confesse the worke countorfeit, and sticke not to brand the oBaron annal. tom. 5. ann. 420. & in Martyrolog. Rom. Sept. 30.Author of it for an hereticall impostor, and a loud lier. And of late they hauehave set out vnderunder the name of the same Cyrill pPosseuin. in appar. tom. 2. in August.two bookes of Catechising; which besides sundry passages in them that argue a late writer, as qCatech. 4. & 10. & 13.where he speaketh of the Inuention of the Crosse as rL…um crucis testatur apud nos apparens, vsque ad hodiernum diem, & apud illos, qui secundum fidem ex ilio capie…tes, hinc uniuersum orbem ferè iam replerunt. Catech. 10.a matter long before his time, and saith that the whole world was then filled with the pieces of it, whereas rBaron. annal. tom. 3. an. 326.the true Cyril was liuing at the very time when the Crosse is reported to hauehave beene found by Helen; the same Catech…sings are tIos. Simler. in Biblioth. & Gretz. contra. Petr. Molin.reported to bee found in some written copies vnderunder the name one Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem, of which name there was uMagdeburgen…. Centur. 8. cap. 10.one about the 2. Nicene Councel, some hundreds of yeeres after that Cyrils decease. So that they may as well cite that second Councel of Nice for the adoration of Images, as this counterfeit Cyril for their Transubstantiation, vnlesse they can bring sounder proofe for him, and better informe vsus what he is, and whence he came. The authoritie of this Catechiser is no better then the authoritie of that Epistler for ought can bee shewed; which yet xVernier. in magn. & vniuers. concil.in this very Argument is also produced, and yVide Eckium vbi sup.is enforced vponupon vsus as an indubitate and authenticall Author. Such bastard pearles, Bristow diamonds, and glasse bugles are these poore pedlars, like pety chapmen faine to stuffe their packets with, for want of better and choiser wares. And yet may wee but hauehave leaue to expound this Cyril, or whosoeuer he is else, by himselfe, we shall soone shew him to say no more then we willingly admit. For in aCatech. mystag. 4.the same Catechising that is here alleadged, bforeign.Doe not regard (saith he) these things, as bare …read and wine. And in cCatech. mystag. 3.the Catechising next before; dforeignDoe not suppose that ointment to be bare ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the inuocation of the holy Ghost, is eforeign.no longer bare bread, but Christs bodie: so this holy Oyntment after inuocation is fforeign.no more bare or common ointment, but a gift of Christ and the holy Ghost, by the presence of his Deitie. And looke what he saith concerning the not trusting of our senses in the matter of the Eucharist, the same doth gAutor de initiat. myst. c. ….the Ambrose before cited say of the Sacrament of Baptisme. hQuid vidisti? Aqu…s. Sed non solas, &c.What seest thou? saith he. Water: but not water alone, &c. First, the Apostle teacheth thee to contemplate not the things that are seene but the things that are not seene. Beleeue the presence of the Deitie. For how could it worke there, if it were not present. And againe afterward; iNon solis corporis tui credas oculis: magis videtur quod non videtur.Beleeue not thy bodily eyes alone: that is better seene that is not seene. And say not we as much? that it is not bare bread, nor bare wine that is offered vsus in the Eucharist, (whatsoeuer this lying wretch hereafter shamelesly auoweth, as when we come to it shall be shewed) which is all that our outward sense is able to enforme; but spirituall signes and seales, and effectuall instruments of grace, which the eye of our soule is alone able to conceiue, and our faith to assure vsus of.
4. Chrysostome is alleadged; but little to the purpose. The former allegation is here cited out of Sermon 60. ad Popul. Antioch. which Sermon this Answerer, had hee beene so well acquainted with the Author hee citeth, as would beseeme such a Doctor as he professeth himselfe to be, he should hauehave found to be an Homily neuer made by Chrysostome, but by some other composed of part of two Sermons of his, on the Glosse of S. Matthew pieced together, to wit, the 83. and the 51. according to the Latin, or the 82. and 50. according to the Greeke. The place produced is out of the 83. on Matthew: for that is the proper place of it. In which Sermon Chrysostome speaketh no more of the Eucharist, then he doth of the Sacrament of Baptisme, in the very next words. kChrysost. in Math. Lat. Serm. 83. Greg. Serm. 8….It is no sensible thing (saith hee) that Christ hath left vsus, but in things indeed sensible matters all intelligible. lforeign.In like manner it is in Baptisme. By a sensible thing, to wit, water is the gift giuen, but the thing that is there wrought, to wit, regeneration and renovation, is a thing intelligible. If thou wert not corporall, he would hauehave giuen thee the gifts themselues naked and spirituall: but because thy soule is conioyned with thy body, thereforeby sensible things he giveth thee things intelligible. And in mChrysost. in Math. Lat. Serm. 51. Grae. Serm. 50.the other Sermon out of which that Homily is pieced: Beleeue thou that the same supper wherein Christ himselfe sate downe, is now celebrated. For there is no difference betweene this and that. For nforeign &c.it is not a man that doth the one, and Christ the other. But it is Christ himselfe that doth both the one and the other. When therefore thou seest the Priest reaching somewhat to thee: oforeign.do not imagine that it is the Priest that doth it, but that it is Christs hand that is stretched out to thee. For as when thou art baptised, pforeign, &c.hee doth not baptize thee; but it is God that holdeth thy head by his inuisible power; and neither Angel nor Archangel, nor any other dare approach and touch: So is it now also. Now what is here spoken but of Mysteries or Sacraments in generall, applied after in particular, as well to Baptisme as to the Eucharist? and therefore may as well prooue a reall or essentiall transmutation in the one as in the other: and if not in both, in neither, since the very same things are spoken of either: to wit, that we must in either regard not so much what our bodily eye seeth, as what the spirituall eye of the beleeuing soule by faith apprehendeth, and vponupon ground of Gods word beleeueth: and that by things sensible are things intelligible conueighed to vsus, and effected in vsus as well in the one as in the other.
The 2. place of Chrysostome is out of his 3. booke de Sacerdotio. Wherein this alleadger of him fareth as ill as in the former allegation. Chrysost. saith indeed that Christ that sitteth aboue with his Father in heauen, is qforeign.at that time (to wit, when the Eucharist is celebrated) held in the hands of each one, and offreth himself to those, that will claspe him about and embrace him. But not to insist vponupon what was aboue said by him, that Christ himselfe and not Man both there and in Baptisme administreth; nor vponupon other phrases in the same place vsed by him, both before of the same Eucharist, that rforeign.the people are all died purplered in it with Christs blood; and afterward of Baptisme, that in it sforeign.wee are buried together with Christ: Which cannot bee vnderstood but figuratiuely: he sheweth in the very next words to those here cited, what his meaning was in them, and how all this is done, when hee saith; tforeign.And this they doe all then with the eyes of faith.
The third place is not, as he seemeth to cite it, out of the same booke, but out of his 2. Sermon ad populum Antiochenum. He found them ioyned together in Bellarmine, out of whom he hath all, and therefore tooke them (it seemeth) to bee both out of one booke. Chrysostome there saith that Christ hath left vsus his flesh, and yet hath it still in Heauen. But how that may be verified, he himselfe sheweth in the same place a little before, when he saith, that uErat posthae duplex Elias ille: Et erat sursum Elias, & deorsum Elias.there was a twofold Elias, (whom he compareth Christ withall,) when Elias was translated, an Elias aboue, and an Elias beneath; he meaneth Elisaeus, on whom v2. King. 2. 5rested the spirit of Elias, whom hee therefore esteemeth a symbolicall Elias; as Iohn the Baptist is called xMal. 4. 5.Elias, because he came yLuk. 1. 15.in the power and the spirit of Elias, and so was also Elias, as zMath. 11. 14our Sauiour auerreth (and aAug. in Ioan. tract. 4.Augustine well obserueth) though bIoh. 1. 21.not essentially Elias, yet cMath. 17. 12, 13.Elias symbolically. And so here in like manner. Christs essentiall flesh is in heauen, whither they must also, saith Chrysostome, dChrysost. in 1. Cor. homil. 24.ascend, and flie vp like Eagles, that will hauehave it: his symbolicall Flesh is here vponupon earth, as the Symbolicall Elias was, in the Sacrament of his body; which (saith Augustine) eSecundum quendam modum sacramentum corporis Christi corpus Christi est. Aug. ep. 23.in some sort is his body, being a Signe and Sacrament of it.
And thus you see what substantiall proofes this great Blusterer hath brought to prooue their Transubstantiation: and how well he hath acquit himselfe for a man well read in the auncient Fathers, as hereafter hee boasteth himselfe to be.