Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 1 · Section 23
Winchester.
It shalbe now to purpose to consider the scriptures touching the matter of the Sacrament, which the author pretending to bring forth faithfully as the maiesty therof requireth: in the rehearsall of the wordes of Christ out of the gospel of S. Iohn: he beginneth a litle to low and passeth ouer that pertaineth to the matter, and therfore should hauehave begun a litle higher at this clause: and the bread which I shall geue you is my flesh, which I will geue for the life of the worlde. The Iewes therfore striued between themselues, saying: How can this man geue his flesh to be eaten? Iesus therfore sayd vntounto thē. Uerely, verely, I say vntounto you, except ye eat the flesh of the sonne of man, & drink his bloud ye hauehave no life in you, who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud, hath eternall life, & I will rayse him vp at the last day. For my flesh is very meat, and my bloud very drink. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, dwelleth in me and I in him. As the lyuing father hath sent me, and I liue by the father: Euen so, he that eateth me, shall liue by me. This is the bread which came downe from heauen. Not as your fathers did eate Manna and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall liue for euer.
Here is also a faulte in the translation of the text, which should be thus in one place. For my flesh is verely meate and my bloud is verely drinke. In which speach, the verbe that coupeleth the words (flesh) and (meate) together, knitteth them together in their proper signification, so as the flesh of Christ is verely meate, and not figuratiuely meate, as the author would perswade. And in these wordes of Christ may appeare plainly, how Christ taught the mistery of the food of his humanity which he promised to geue for food, euen the same flesh that he sayd he would geue for the life of the world, and so expresseth the first sentence of this scripture here by me wholy brought forth, that is to say, and the bread which I shall geue you is my flesh which I shall geue for the life of the world, and so is it plain that Christ spake of flesh in the same sence that S. Iohn speaketh in, saying: The word was made flesh, signifying by flesh the whol humanity. And so did Cyril agrée to Nestorius, when he vponupon these textes, reasoned how this eating is to be vnderstanded of Christes humanitye, to which nature in Christes person, is properly attribute to be eaten as meat spiritually to nourish man, dispenced and geuen in the Sacrament. And betwéene Nestorius and Cyrill was this diuersitie in vnderstanding the misterye,Cyrill and …storius. that Nestorius estéeming of ech nature in Christ a seuerall person, as it was obiected to him, and so dissoluinge the ineffable Unitie, did so repute the body of Christ to be eaten as the body of a man seperate. Cyrill maintayned the body of Christ to be eaten as a body inseperable vnited to the Godhead, and for the ineffable mistery of that Union, the same to be a flesh that geueth life. And then as Christ sayth. If we eate not the fleshe of the Sonne of man, we hauehave not life in vsus, because Christ hath ordered the Sacrament of his most precious body and bloud, to nourish such as be by his holy Spirite regenerate. And as in Baptisme we receaue the Spirite of Christe,In baptisme we receaue Christs spirite to geue life, in the Lords Supper we receaue his flesh & bloud to continue life. for the renuinge of our lyfe, so doe wer in this Sacrament of Christes most precious body and bloud, receaue Christes very flesh, and drinke his very bloud, to continue and preserue, increase and augment, the life receaued.
And therefore in the same forme of wordes Christ spake to Nichodemus of baptisme, that he speaketh here of the eating of his body, and drinking of his bloud, and in both Sacramentes geueth, dispenseth, and exhibiteth in déede, those celestiall giftes in sensible elementes, as Chrisostome sayth. And because the true faithfull beléeuing men doe only by fayth know the sonne of man to be in vnity of person the sonne of God, so as for the vnitie of the two natures in Christ, in one person, the flesh of the Sonne of man, is the proper flesh of the sonne of God.
Saint Augustine sayd well when he noted these wordes of Christ: Uerely, verely, vnlesse ye eate the flesh of the sonne of man, &c. to be a figuratiue speach, because after ye bare letter it séemeth vnprofitable, considering that flesh profiteth nothing in it self, estemed in the own nature alone, but as the same flesh in Christ is vnited to the diuine nature, so is it as Christ sayd (after Cyrilles exposition) spirite and life, not chaunged into the diuine nature of the spirite, but for the ineffable vnion in the person of Christ therunto: It is viuificatrix, (as Cyrill sayde) and as the holy Ephc…ine Councell decreed: A flesh geuing life, according to Christes wordes: Who eateth my flesh; and drinketh my bloud, hath eternall life, and I will rayse him vp at the later day. And then to declare vntounto vsus, how in géeuinge this life to vsus, Christe vseth the instrument of his very humayne body: it followeth. For my flesh is verely meate, and my bloud is verely drinke. So like as Christ sanctifieth by his godly spirite, so doth he sanctifie vsus by his godly flesh, and therefore repeteth agayn, to inculcate the celestiall thing of this mistery, and saieth: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, dwelleth to me and I in him, which is the naturall, and corporall vnion, betwéene vsus and Christ. Whereupon followeth, that as Christ is naturally in his Father, and his Father in him, so he that eateth verely the fleshe of Christ, he is by nature in Christ, and Christ is naturally in him, and the worthy receauer hath life increase, augmented, and confirmed by the participation of the flesh of Christ.
And because of the ineffable vnion of the two natures, Christ sayd: This is the food that came downe from heauen, because God (whose proper flesh it is) came downe from heauen, and hath an other vertue then Manna had, because this geueth life to them that worthely receaue it: which Manna (being but a figure thereof) did not, but being in this foode Christes very flesh, inseparably vnited to the Godhead, the same is of such efficacye, as he that worthely eateth of it, shall liue for euer. And thus I hauehave declared the sence of Christes wordes brought forth out of the Gospel of S. John. Whereby appeareth how euidently they set forth the doctrine of the mistery of the eating of Christes flesh, & drinking his bloud in the sacrament, which must néedes be vnderstanded of a corporal eating, as Christ did after order in the institution of the sayd Sacrament, according to his promise and doctrine here declared.