Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 3 · Section 60
Winchester.
Origines.Origens wordes be very playne, and meaning also, which speake of manifestation and exhibition, which be two things to be verified thrée wayes in our religion, that is to say, in the word, and regeneration, and the sacramēt of bread and wine as this author termeth it: which Origen sayth not so, but thus (the flesh of the word of God) not meaning in eueryevery of these after one sort, but after the truth of the Scripture in ech of them. Christ in his word is manifest and exhibited vntounto vsus, and by fayth that is of hearyng dwelleth in vsus spiritually, for so we hauehave his spirit. Of Baptisme S. Paule sayth as many as be baptysed, be clad in christ. Now in ye sacramēt of bred & wine by Origens rule Christ should be manifested and exhibited vntounto vsus after the scriptures,Origen hath (facte ad faciem) but I take this author as he alleadgeth Origen. so as the sacrament of bread and wine should not onelyonly signify Christ, that is to say, preach him, but also exhibite him sensibly, as Origens wordes be reported here to be. So as Christes wordes (This is my body) should be wordes not of fygure or shewing, but of exhibiting Christes body vntounto vsus, and sensibly, as this author alleageth him, which should signifye to be receiued with our mouth,Errors. as Christ commaunded when he sayd: Take eat &c. diuersely from the other two wayes, in which by Christes spirite we be made participant of the benefite of his passion wrought in his manhode.When I say (by his manhood) I mean corporally as Cyrill speaketh. But in this sacrament we be made participant of his Godhead, by his humanity exhibit vntounto vsus for food, and so in this mistery we receaue him man and God, and in the other by meane of his godhead be participant of the effect of his passion suffered in his manhod.
In this sacrament Christes manhode is represented and truly present; whereunto the godhead is most certaynly vnited, wherby we receaue a pledge of the regeneration of our flesh, to be in the general resurrection spirituall with our soule, as we hauehave bene in baptisme made spirituall by regeneration of the soule: which in the full redemption of our bodies, shalbe made perfect. And therfore this author may not compare baptisme with the sacrament throughly: in which Baptisme, Christes manhode is not really present, although the vertue and effect of his most precious bloud be there: but the truth of the mistery of this sacrament is to hauehave Christes body, his flesh and bloud exhibited, wherunto eating and drinking is by Christ in his supper apropriate. In which supper, Christ sayd, (This is my body) which Bucer noteth, and that Christ sayd not, This is my spirite, This is my vertue. Wherfore after Origenes teaching, if Christ be not onelyonly manifested, but also exhibited sensibly in th… sacrament,Sensibly. then is he in the sacrament indede, that is to say, Really:Really. and then is he there substancially,Substancially because the substaunce of the body is there: and is there corporally also,Corporally. bycause the very body is there: and naturally,Naturally. bicause the naturall body is there, not vnderstanding corporally and naturally in the maner of presence, nor sensibly neither. For then were the maner of presence within mans capacitie, and that is false: and therfore the catholique teaching is, that the maner of Christes presence in the sacrament, is spirituall and supernaturall not corporall, not carnall, not naturall, not sensible, not perceptible, but onelyonly spirituall, the (how) and maner wherof, God knoweth, and we assured by his word know onelyonly the truth to be so, that it is there indede, and therfore really to be also receaued with our handes and mouthes: and so sensibly there, the body that suffered, and therfore his naturall body there, the body of very flesh, and therfore his carnall body, the body truely, and therfore his corporall body there. But as for ye maner of presence, that is onelyonly spirituall, as I sayd before and here in the inculcation of these wordes. I am tedious to a lerned reader, but yet this author enforceth me therunto, who with these wordes, carnally, corporally, grosely, sensibly, naturally, applying them to the maner of presence, doth maliciously and craftely cary away the reader from the simplicitie of his fayth: and by such absurdities, as these words: grosely vnderstanded import, astonieth the simple reader in consideration of the matter, and vseth these wordes, as dust afore their eyes, which to wipe away, I am enforced to repeate the vnderstanding of these words oftener then elswere necessary. These thinges well considered, no man doth more playnly confound this author then this saying of Origene, as he alleageth it, whatsoeuer other sentences he would pycke out of Origene, when he vseth libertie of allegories to make him seme to say otherwise. And as I hauehave declared a fore, to vnderstand Christes wordes spiritually, is to vnderstand them, as the spirite of God hath taught the church, and to esteme godes misteries most true in the substaunce of the thing so to be, although the maner excedeth our capacities, which is a spirituall vnderstanding of the same. And here also this author putteth in for figuratiuely, spiritually, to deceaue the reader.