A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 16
A mysterye.
1 The flesshe and blood And lyuelye food.
2 And onlye vvelthe Of oure soule helthe.
3 Qul manducat hunc panem, viuet in aeternum. Ioan. 6.
¶The openinge. 1.
PRoudelye styll pratleth this popishe Poete / accusynge Iohan Frith for not graūtynge Christes reall presence in their sacrament. And here he cōuerteth his fantasyed realyte into Christes fleshe and blood / callynge it the lyuelye fode of y• sowle Godlye wyse was Iohan Frith / and so shall he fynde it in the latter daye / in that he wolde not attribute vntounto Christ that thynge / wt is not founde in y• scripturs. A popishe lyuerye is that realite of theirs / sophisticallye borrowed of Aristotles logyck. He wolde in no case be accursed of the mouthe of God for addynge soche beggerye to his worde. Rather ded he (good creature) offre his bodye to the fyre. I thynke not the contrarye of I… han Frith / but yf their sacrament had bene Christes as it is the Popes / in the colours it is in now / he had graunted vntounto it moche more than he ded. Christes fleshe is no soche pouetrye / nor his blood soche māmetrye / as their mangye myracles hath made it. For yf their corruptyble breade were that lyuelye fode of sowle / than had all they peryshed / which hath not so outwardlye receyued it afore tyme. As Adam / Noe / Abraham / Moyses / Dauid / Helias / with all the other fathers which dyed afore Christ. They receyued both his bodye and blood / els had they not bene saued. For saynt Paule doth saye that all they and we hauehave eaten of one spirituall meate and drōcke of one spirituall drincke / one harde rocke ministrynge it vntounto ve both. In sprete & veryte (sayth Christ) shall the true worshippers worshippe him / and not in outwarde thynges that are seane with the eye / for they remayne onlye to the false worshippers or ydolaters.
2 Neyther hauehave youre Realyte power to make youre blessed sacrament Christes flesshe nor yet his blood. Neyther can ye therby proue it oure lyuelye food nor yet oure …owles helthe / though ye a thousande tymes put it thervnto. For so moche as it cometh not from y• expresse worde of God / but from the fylthye doctryne of youre Philosophers / which were non other but fylthye ydolaters. Rathe… shulde it seme therfore to conuert it into an ydoll to oure sowles destruccyon / than into Christes fleshe to oure sowles cō solacyon. A lyuelye fode it maye wele be vntounto you which are fedde therwith daylye at youre austers / but wele I wote in that kynde it is non vntounto vsus in y• churches bodye which hauehave no part therof. An onlye welthe it maye be vntounto youre generacyon which take the swete profytes therof / & lyueth therby in all boluptuouse pleasurs of ydelnesse. But how it shulde be the helthe of youre sowles in that kynde of clowtynge / that can I not wele tell you. Wele I wote it is neyther welthe nor helthe vntounto vsus. For a great vndoynge hath it bene to the comonwelthe / and is yet a most ruynouse decaye of the peples sowle helthe / the eternall father redressel it. ye will saye parauenture ye make it Christes fleshe by the speakynge of his worde vntounto it Christ neuer taughte yow to preache his worde in a foren language to a thynge that is dumme / but to the lyuynge peple in their natyue language / that they myght beleue and be saued. He bad you distribute that brede vntounto other / and not to slaffe it vp youre selues. He commaunded also the peple to eate it / but in no case to worship it. Neuer was it worshipped in the churche / tyll it had youre Realyte / which Christ neuer graunted to youre breathynge.
3 The scripture that is here alleged oute of the sixt of Iohan. Qui manducat hunc panem / viuet in eternum / condempneth the whole doctrine of Pantolabꝰ madde meters here / both by the sequele of the same chap. and also by the opynion of all the olde doctors which nameth it a spirituall eatynge. In all that processe doth Christ reproue the Capernaytes or carnall hearers of his worde / requirynge a beleue of them that will be saued. For at that tyme nor yet of a yeare after was not that holye supper of his instituted. Christ there admonished both his owne disciples and y• Capernaytes not to labour for the meate that perisheth with the bellye / but for that which endureth into the lyfe euerlastynge which is his eternall worde. And whan they grodged at his heaueulye aduertysementes / he declared vntounto them what he ment by that eatynge / fayeng. Qui credit in me / habet vitam eternam. He that beleueth on me / hath the lyfe euerlastynge. As who shulde saye / that there to eate / is to beleue accordynge to his worde. Whan Christe after that he had declared hymselfe to be the breade of lyfe / and that his fleshe was meate and his blood verye drincke / and that they which ded eate him shuld lyue for euer. He gaue them this for a full cōclusyon of the vnderstandynge of that eatynge and drinckynge. Spiritus est qui vi…ificat / caro non prodest quicquā. It is onlye the sprete that quyckeneth / the carnall eatynge profyteth nothynge at all. For the bisshoppes behelde him / Iudas ded kysse him / and the cruell Iewes towched his bodye / yet were they for that neuer the better. Nomore than the prestes are yet to this houre / which (as they saye) do daylye receyue him with their mouthe / eate him with their lyppes / and teare him with their teathe.