Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 3 · Section 23
Caunterbury.
HOw is this comparison out of the matter of the presence of Christes most precious body in the Sacrament, when the Papistes say that the masse is not a sacrifice propiciatory, but because the presence of Christes most precious body beyng presently there? And yet if this comparison be out of the matter (as you say it is) why doe you then wrastle and wrangle with it so much? And doe I seeme to graunt the peesence of Christs body in the first part of my comparison, when I do nothing there but rehearce what ye Papists do say? But because all this proceeds (which you bring in here out of tune and time) belōgeth to the last booke, I wil passe it ouer vntounto the propper place, onelyonly by the way touching shortly some notable wordes.
Although you neuer red that the oblation of the priest, is satisfactory by deuotion of the priest,Whether the Masse be satisfactory by the deuotiō of the priest. yet neuerthelesse the papistes doe so teach, and you may finde it in their S. Thomas,Thom. part. 3. q… 79. art 5. both in his Summe, and vponupon the 4. of the sentences, whose wordes hauehave been red in the Uninersities almost these 300. yeares, and neuer vntill this day reproued by any of the papists in this point. He saith: Quod Sacrificium Sacerdotis habet vim satisfactiuam, sed in satisfactione magis attenditur affectus offerentis, quam quantitas oblationis. Ide satisfactoria est illis pro quibus offertur, vel etiam offerentibus, secundum quantitatem suae deuotionis, & non pro tota paena.
But here the Reader may see in you, that the aduersaries of the truth sometime be inforced to say the truth, although sometime they doe it vnwares: as Caiphas prophesied the truth, and as you doe here confes, that Christ is our satisfaction wholly and fully.Ioh. 11.
And yet the Reader may note your inconstancy. For afterward in the last booke you geue Christ such a nippe, that of that whole satisfactiō, you pinch halfe away from him, and ascribe it to the sacrifice of the Priest, as I shall more fully declare in my answere to ye last book. For you say there that the sacrifice of Christ geueth vsus life, and that the sacrifice of the priest continueth our life.
And here good Reader, thou art to be warned that this wryter in this place, goeth about craftely to draw thee from the very worke of our full redemptiō, wrought by our Sauiour Christ vponupon the crosse, vntounto a Sacrifice (as they say) made by him, the night before at his last supper. And forasmuch as eueryevery priest (as the papists say) maketh the same sacrifice in his masse, therfore consequently it followeth by this writer, that we must seeke our redemptiō at the priests sacrifice. And so Christes blessed passion (which he most obediently and willingly suffered for our saluation vponupon the crosse,) was not the onelyonly and sufficient sacrifice for remission of our sinnes.
The onelyonly will (I graunt) both in good thinges and euill, is accepted, or reiected before God, and sometime hath the name of the facte, as the will of Abraham to offer his sonne, is called the oblation of his sonne:The declaration of Christes will to die, was not a sacrifice propiciatory for sinne. and Christ called him an adulterer, in his hart that desireth another mannes wife, although there be no fact committed in deede.
And yet Abrahams will alone was not called the oblation of his snōe,Heb. 11. but his will declared by many factes and circumstāces: *Math. 5. Gen. 22.For he carryed his sonne three dayes iorney to the place where God had appointed him to slea and offer his sonne Isaac, whom he most intirely loued. He cutte wood to make the fire for that purpose, he layd the wood vponupon his sonnes backe, and made him to cary ye same wood wherwith he should be brent. And Abraham himselfe (commanding hys seruauntes to tary at the foot of the hill) caryed the fire and sword wherwith he entended (as God had commaunded) to kill his own sonne whom he so deerely loued. And by the way as they went, his sonne sayd vntounto his father: Father, see, here is fire and wood, but where is the sacrifice that must be killed? How these wordes of the sonne pearced the fathers hart, eueryevery louinge father may iudge by the affection which he beareth to his own children. For what man would not hauehave been abashed and stayed at these wordes? thinking thus within him selfe: Alas sweete sonne, thou doest aske me where the sacrifice is, thy self art the same sacrifice that must be slayn, & thou (poore innocent) caryest thine own death vponupon thy backe, and the wood wherewith thy self must be brent. Thou art he whom I must slea, which art most innocent, and neuer offended. Such thoughtes you may bee sure, pearced thorow Abrahams hart, no les then the very death of his sonne should hauehave done.2. Reg. 12. As Dauid lamentably bewayled his sonne lying in ye panges of death, but after he was dead, he tooke his death quietly & cō fortably enough. But nothing could altar Abrahams hart, or moue him to disobey God, but forth on he goeth with his sonne to the place which God had appointed, and there he made an altar, and layd the wood vponupon it, and bound his sonne, & layd him vponupon the heape of ye woode in the altar, and tooke the sword in his hand, and lifted vp his arme to strike, and kill his sonne, and would hauehave done so in deede if the angell of God had not letted him, commaunding him in the stede of his sonne to take a ram, that was fast by the hornes in the bryars. This obedience of Abraham vntounto Gods commaundement in offering of his sonne, declared by so many actes and circumstances, is called in the Scripture the offering of his sonne, and not the will onelyonly.
Nor the scripture calleth not the declaration of Christes will in his last supper to suffer death, by the name of a sacrifice satisfactory for sinne, nor saith not that he was there offered in deede. For the will of a thing is not in deede the thing. And if the declaration of his wil to dy, had been an oblation and sacrifice propitiatory for sinne: Then had Christ been offered not only in his supper, but as often as he declared his wil to dye. As whē he said long before his Supper many times, that he should be betrayed,Math. 20. Marc. 10. Luc. 18. Iohn. 2. Iohn. 6. Iohn. 10. scourged, spitte vponupon, and crucified, and that the third day he should rise againe. And when he had them destroy the temple of his body, & he would builde it vp agayn within three dayes. And when he said that he would geue his flesh for the life of the world, and his life for his sheepe.
And if these were sacrifices propitiatory or satisfactory, for remission of sinne, what needed he then after to dye, if he had made the propitiatory sacrifice for sinne already? For either the other was not vailable thereto, or els his death was in vaine, as S. Paule reasoneth of the priestes of the old law, and of Christ. And it is not red in any scripture, that Christs will declared at his supper,Heb. 2. was effectuous and sufficient for our redemtion, but that his most willing death and passion, was the oblation sufficient to endure for euer and euer, world without end.
But what sleights & shifts this writer doth vse to winde the Reader into his error, it is wōder to see, by deuising to make two sacrifices of one will, the one by declaratiō, the other by execution, a deuise such as was neuer imagined before of no man, & meete to come out of a pha…tast …all head. But I say precisely, yt Christ offered himself neuer but once,Rom. 6. Heb. 7. 9. 10. 1. Pet. 3. because ye scripture so precisely & so many times saith so, & hauing ye same for my warrāt, it maketh me ye bolder to stād against you, yt deny ye thing which is so often times repeated in scripture. And where you say, that there is no scripture wherupō we might cōclude, yt Christ did in this mortal life, but in one particular momēt of time offer him self to ye father: to what purpose you bring forth this momēt of time I cānot tell, for I made no mēt…on therof, but of ye day of his death, & the scripture saith plainly,Heb. 9. yt as it is ordained for euerye man to dye but once, so Christe was offered but once.Ibidem. And saith further, that sinne is not forgeuē but by effusiō of bloud, & therefore if Christ had ben offered many times, he should hauehave dyed many times.Phil. 2. And of any other offering of Christes body for sin, the scripture speaketh not. For although S. Paul to the Phillippiās, speaketh of the humiliatiō of Christ by his incarnatiō, & so to worldly miseries & afflictiōs, euē vntounto death vpō the crosse, yet he calleth not eueryevery humiliatiō of Christ, a sacrifice & oblatiō for remissiō of sin, but onelyonly his oblatiō vpō good Fryday, which as it was our perfect redēptiō, so was it our perfect recōciliatiō, propitiatiō, & satisfactiō for sinne. And to what purpose you make here a long processe of our sacrifices of obedience vntounto Gods cōmaūdemēts: I cānot deuise. For I declare in my last booke, that all our whole obedience vntounto Gods will a commaūdemēts, is a sacrifice acceptable to God, but not a sacrifice propitiatory: for ye sacrifice Christ onelyonly made, and by that his sacrifice, all our Sacrifices be acceptable to God, & without yt, none is acceptable to him. And by those sacrifices al christē people offer thēselues to God, but they offer not Christ again for sin, for yt did neuer creature but Christ him self alone: nor he neuer but vpō good Fryday. For although he did institute the night before a remēbrance of his death, vnderunder the Sacramēts of bread & wine, yet he made not at yt time the sacrifice of our redēptiō, & satisfaction for our sinnes, but the next day following. And the declaration of Christ at his last supper, that he would suffer death, was not the cause wherfore Ciprian sayd that Christ offered himselfe in his supper. For I reade not in any place of Ciprian,Cyprianus lib. 2. epi. 3. to my remēbrance, any such wordes that Christ offered himselfe in his supper, but he saith, yt Christ offered the fame thing whiche Melchisedech offered. And if Ciprian say in any place, that Christ offered himself in his supper, yet he sayd not, that Christ did so for this cause, that in his supper he declared his death. And therfore here you make a deceitful fallax in sophistry, pretending to shew that thing to be a cause, which is not the true cause in deede. For the cause why Ciprian, and other olde authors, say yt Christ made an oblation, and offering of him selfe in his last supper, was not that he declared there, that he would suffer death, for yt he had declared many times before, but the cause was that there he ordained a perpetuall memory of his death, which he would all faithfull christē people to obserue frō time to time, remembring his death, with thankes for his benefites, vntill his comming again. And therfore the memoriall of the true sacrifice made vponupon the crosse (as S. Augustine saith) is called by the name of a sacrifice,August. ad Bonifacium epist. 23. as a thing that signifyeth an other thing, is called by the name of the thing which it signifyeth, although in very deede it be not the same.
And the long discourse that you make of Christes true presence, and of the true eating of him, and of his true assisting vsus in our doing of his commaundement, all these be true. For Christes flesh & bloud be in the sacrament truely present, but spiritually and sacramentally, not carnally, and corporally. And as he is truely present, so is he truely eaten and dronken, and assisteth vsus. And he is the same to vsus, that he was to them that saw him with their bodely eyes. But where you say, that he is as familiare with vsus, as he was with thē, here I may say the French terme which they vse for reuerence sake, Saue vostre grace. And he offered not him selfe then for them vponupon the crosse, and now offereth himself for vsus daily in the Masse, but vponupon the crosse he offered him selfe both for vsus and for them. For that his one sacrifice of his body than onelyonly offered, is now vntounto vsus by fayth as auailable, as it was then for them. For with one sacrifice (as S. Paul saith) he hath made perfect for euer them that be sanctifyed.
Heb. 10.And where you speake of the participation of Christes flesh and bloud, if you meane of the sacramentall participatiō onelyonly, that therby we be ascertayned of the regeneration of our bodies, that they shall liue, and hauehave the fruition of God with our soules for euer, you be in an horrible errour, And if you meane a spirituall participation of Christes body and bloud, then all this your processe is in vaine, and serueth nothing for your purpose, to proue that Christes flesh and bloud be corporally in the sacrament, vnderunder the formes of bread and wine, and participated of them that be euill (as you teach) which be no whit therby the more certain of their saluation, but of their damnation, as S. Paul saith.
1. Cor. 11.And although the holy supper of the Lord be not a vain or phantasticall supper, wherein thinges should be promised, which be not performed, to them that worthely come thereunto, but Christes flesh and bloud be there truely eaten and dronken in deede, yet that misticall supper can not be without misteries and figures. And although wee feede in deede of Christes body, and drinke in deed his bloud, yet not corporally, quantitatiuely, and palpably, as we shalbe regenerated at the resurrection, and as he was betrayed, walked here in earth, and was very man. And therfore although the thinges by you rehearsed, be all truely done, yet all be not done after one sort and fashion, but some corporally and visibly, some spiritually and inuisibly. And therfore to al your comparisons or similitudes here by you rehearsed, if there be geuen to eueryevery one his true vnderstanding, they may be so graunted all to be true. But if you will linke all these together in one sort and fashiō, and make a chaine thereof, you shall farre passe the bondes of wanton reason, making a chaine of golde and copper together, confounding and mixing together, corporall and spiritual, heauenly and earthly thinges, and bring all to very madnes and impiety, or plaine and manifest heresy.
A chaine of errours.And because one single error pleaseth you not, shortly after you linke a number of errors almost together in one sentēce, as it were to make an whole chaine of errors, saying not onelyonly, that Christes body is verely present in the celebratiō of ye holy supper (meaning of corporal presence) but yt it is also our very sacrifice, and sacrifice propitiatory, for all the sinnes of the world, and that it is the onelyonly sacrifice of the church: and that it is the pure aud cleane sacrifice, whereof Malachy spake,Malac. 14. and that Christ doth now in the celebration of this supper, as he did when he gaue the same to his Apostles, and that he offreth himself now as he did then, and that the same offering is not now renewed agayne. This is your chain of errors, wherein is not one linke of pure golde, but all be copper, fayned, and coū terfaite: For neither is Christes body verely, and corporally, present in the celebration of his holy supper, but spiritually. Nor his body is not the very sacrifice, but the thing wherof the sacrifice was made: and the very sacrifice was the crucifying of his body, and the effusion of his bloud vntounto death. Wherfore of his body was not made a sacrifice propitiatory for all the sinnes of the world at his supper, but the next day after vponupon the cros. Therfore sayth the Prophet that we were made whole by his wounds: Liuore eius sanati sumus.Esay. 53.
Nor that sacrifice of Christ in the celebration of the supper, is not the only sacrifice of the church, but all the workes that christen people doe to the glory of God, be sacrifices of the church, smelling sweetly before God. And they be also the pure and clean sacrifice, wherof the Prophet Malachy did speake. For the Prophet Malachy spake of no such sacrifices as onelyonly priestes make, but of such sacrifice as all christen people make both day and night, at all times, and in all places.
Nor Christ doth not now as he did at his last Supper which he had with his Apostles… for then (as you say) he declared his will, that he would dye for vsus. And if he do now as he did thē, thē doth he now declare that he will dye for vsus againe.
But as for offering him self now as he did then, this speech may hauehave a true sence, being like to that which sometime was vsed at the admission of vnlearned fryers and monkes vntounto their degrees in the Uniuersities: where the Doctor that presented them, deposed that they were meete for the sayd degrees, as well in learning as in vertue. And yet that depositiō in one sence was true, when in deede they were meete neither in the one nor in the other. So likewise, in that sence Christ offereth himself now, as well as he did in his supper, for in deede he offered himself a sacrifice propiciatory for remission of sinne in neither of both, but onelyonly vponupon the cros, making there a sacrifice full and perfect for our redemption, and yet by that sufficient offering made only at that time, he is a daily intercessor for vsus to his father for euer. Finally, it is not true that the offering in the celebration of the supper, is not renued againe.Heb. 7. For the same offering that is made in one Supper, is daily renued and made againe in eueryevery supper, and is called the daily Sacrifice of the church.
Thus hauehave I broaken your chaine, and scattered your linkes, which may be called the very chaine of Belzebub, able to draw into hell as many as come within the compasse therof. And how would you require that men should geue you credite, who within so few lines, knitte together so many manifest lyes. It is another vntruth also which you say after, that Christ declared in the Supper him self an offering and sacrifice for sinne, for he declared in his Supper, not that he was then a sacrifice, but that a sacrifice should be made of his body, which was done the next day after, by the voluntary effusion of his bloud: & of any other sacrificing of Christ for sinne, the Scripture speaketh not. For although the Scripture sayeth that our Sauiour Christ is a continual intercessor for vsus vntounto his father, yet no Scripture calleth that intercession, a sacrifice for sinne, but onelyonly the effusion of his bloud, which it seemeth you make him to doe still, when you say that he suffereth, and so by your imagination he should now still be crucified, if he now suffer as you say he doth. But it seemeth you passe not greatly what you say, so that you may multiply many gallant wordes to the admiration of the hearers. But for as much as you say, that Christ offereth him selfe in the celebration of the Supper, and also that the church offereth him, here I would hauehave you declare how the Church offereth Christ, and how he offereth him selfe, and wherein those offeringes stand, in wordes, deedes, or thoughtes, that we may know what you meane by your daily offering of Christ. Of offering our selues vntounto God in all our actes and deedes, with laudes and thankes geuing, the scripture maketh mention in many places: But that Christ himself in the holy communion, or that the priests make any other oblation then all christen people doe, because these be papisticall inuentions without Scripture, I require nothing but reason of you, that you should so plainly set out these deuised offeringes, that men might plainly vnderstand what they be, and wherein they rest. Now in this comparyson, truth it is (as you say) that you hauehave spent many words: but vtterly in vayne, not to declare, but to darcken the matter. But if you would hauehave followed the plaine words of Scripture, you needed not to hauehave taryed so long, and yet should you hauehave made the matter more cleere a great deale.
Now followeth my last comparison.
They say that Christ is corporally in many places at one time, affirming that his body is corporally,The 13. comparyson. and really present in as many places, as there be hostes consecrated. We say that as the sonne corporally is euer in heauen, & no where els, and yet by his operation and vertue, the sonne is heare in earth, by whose influence and vertue all thinges in the world be corporally regenerated, increased, and grow to their perfect state: So likewise our sauiour Christ bodely and corporally is in heauen, sitting at the right hand of his Father, although spiritually he hath promysed to be present with vsus vponupon earth, vntounto the worldes end. And when soeuer two or three be gathered together in his name, he is there in the middest among them, by whose supernall grace, all godly men be first by him spiritually regenerated, and after increase and grow to their spirituall perfection in God, spiritually by faith eating his flesh, and drinking his bloud, although the same corporally be in heauen, farre distant from our sight.