A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 17
A mysterye.
1 O braynelesse nodye Christ sayd my bodye
2 Is verelye meate For manne to eate.
3 Caro mea vere est cibus, &c. Ioan. 6.
The openinge. 1.
QVycke is Pantolabus in his matters now / & quauereth in his quybybles at large. He cutteth his crotchettes as short as chyldes dyrt / that they shulde tonne rounde on his tonge. Now is Iohan Frith a braynelesse nodye / because he hath not written to his mynde. But what a wytlesse wrangeler is he / and a dodypoll dawe pat… / that thus will talke with a dead manner. A cōmon custom is it amonge the vnlerned papistes / onlye to inueye agaynst them that are gone. Neuer will they meddle with them which are alyue / vnlesse they be sure to burne them or to hange them. Truthe it is that Christ hath sayd / that his bodye is meate / and that he which doth not receyue that meate cā hauehave no lyfe in him. But what that eatynge is can not Pantolabꝰ tell / or at y• last he hath not yet taught it. Christ sayth that to eate his flesshe and to dryncke his blood / is to dwell in him by fayth and louelove / and he agayne to dwell in vsus by his sprete of veryte / and not to heare youre popishe masse or to receyue youre sacrament. An infynite nombre of people hauehave thus eaten him and droncke him / which neuer knewe what your massynge or how sellynge ment / & shall lyue perpetuallye in that refeccyon. Not one euer perished that so hath receyued him / where as thousandes hath bene lost that hath bene fedde at youre aulters.
2 Whereas his fleshe is eaten and surelye dygested / there is seane nomore whoremongynge / theft / fornicacyon / ydelnesse / wytchecraft / cruelte / spyght / couetousnesse / ydolatrye / hatred / glotonye / and other fylthye vyces of the fleshe. But louelove / ioye / peace / pacience / longe sufferynge / gentylnesse / goodnesse / faythfulnesse / mekenesse / clennesse / temperaunce / with other frutes of the sprete. It is not youre oyled generacyon therfore / nor yet they that are howseled at their masses that eateth Christes fleshe & drynketh his blood / which for the more part styll remayne whoremongers / buggerers / robbers / cloyners / catchers / false teachers / hypocrites / ydolaters / trayters / deceyuers / bellye goddes / extorcy…ners / murtherers of sowles / and burnets of innocentes for their true Christen beleue. Where as Christ is eaten / he dwelleth. And whereas he dwelleth / he will suffre no soche workes to be done. That persone can be no blasphemouse babler / no instructour of lyes / no dysdayner of Gods worde / no peruetter of y• scripturs / as Pantolabus is here through oute all his iest. He shall not iudge that to be whyghte that is blacke / nor yet that is blacke to be whyght. But his syght shall be soche by the gyft of his sprete / that the thynge which is nought he shall so discerne it / hath it neuer so manye gloryouse glytterynge colours to the contrarye.
3 As Pantolabus is in his poesyes / so is he in his allegacyons of the scripture / a verye vnlerned ydyote / applyenge them both to his folyshe fleshlye purpose. He thynketh with Caromea vere est cibus / to proue that Christes fleshe is reallye present in their popyshe sacrament. And Christ meaneth nothyngelesse in that whole chapter. He sayth not there my fleshe shall be naturallye present in youre sacrament / whan ye hauehave ones prouyded youre oyled offycers and consecrate coniurers for that purpose. But my fleshe is meate / and my blood is vnfaynedlye drynke / afore there were anye soche …wlyshe orders. He promysed nor to dwell in that / but to dwell in vsus euermore. The kyngedome of God (sayth he) cometh not with outwarde obseruacyon of lo here / and se there. For beholde the kyngdome of God is within yow. youre members (sayth saynt Paule) are the temple of God / and youre sowles the habitacles of the holy ghost. It foloweth in that Gospell hic est panis qui de celo descendit. He is the breade which came from heauen / & not that breade which came from the wafer backers or from the breathyng of syr Laurence Loyterer at the aulter. The worke of God is onlye to beleue / & not to fatche that bread at youre ydell handes. They dye that eate youre breade / and ronne headlynges to the deuyll a greate sort of them / as ded manye of the Iewes that eate Manna in the desart. But they that eate this breade shall neuer perishe.