Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 4
THE CONFVTATION OF the fourth booke.
THus hauing perused the effect of the third booke, I will likewise peruse the fourth, and then shall follow in direct course, to speake of the matter of transubstantiacion. In this fourth Book the author intreateth eating and drinking of Christes body and bloud: And in the first part therof trauayleth to confirme his purpose, and in the second part, aunswereth as he can so his aduersaries, and so taketh accasion to speake of Adoration.
His chiefe purpose is to proue that euill men receiue not ye body and bloud of Christ in the Sacrament, which after this authors doctrine, is a very superfluous matter. For if the sacrament be onelyonly a figure, and the body and bloud of Christ be there onelyonly fyguratiuely, whereto should this author dispute of euill mens eating, when good menne can not eate Christ in the sacrament, bycause he is not there. For by the effect of this authors doctrine, the Sacrament is but a visible preaching by the tokens and signes of bread and wine, that in beleeuing and remembring Christes benefites, with reuoluing them in our mynde, we should in fayth feed vpō Christ spiritually, beleuing that as the bread & wine feedeth & nourisheth our bodies, so Christ feedeth & nourisheth our soules, which be good wordes, but such as the wordes in Christes supper do not learneds, & yet may be well gathered, not to limitte ye mistery of the supper, but to be spoken & taught touching ye beleuing & remēbring Christes benefites, with ye reuoluing of thē in our minde, therby to learne vsus how to feed vpō Christ cōtinually without the vse of the visible Sacramēt, beyng called of S. Augustine the inuisible sacramēt,August. in sermone domini in moute lib. 3. wher in by fayth we be nourished with ye word of God, & the vertus of Christes body & bloud, which the true teaching of the church calleth spirituall manducation only, without which no man is to be accompted a true membre of the mysticall body of Christ. And therfore who so feedeth vponupon Christ thus spiritually, must needes be a good man, for onelyonly good men be true members of Christes misticall body, which spirituall eating is so good a frute, as it declareth the tree necessaryly to be good, and therfore it must be and is certayne conclusion, that onelyonly good men do eat and drincke the body and bloud of Christ spiritually, that is to say, effectually to life. So as this author shall hauehave of me no aduersary therin. And if this author had proued that to be the true doctrine that Christes very body and bloud is not present in the visible Sacrament, then might he hauehave left this fourth booke vnwritten. For after his doctrine, as I sayd before, good men do not eate Christes body in the Sacrament vnderunder the visible signes, for bycause it is not there, and then much lesse should euyll men reach it.
In the Catholike teaching, all the doctrine of eating of Christ is concluded in two maner of eatings, one in the visible Sacrament Sacramentall, an other spirituall without the sacrament. And because in the eating of the visible Sacrament S. Paule speaketh of vnworthy, the same true teaching to open the matter more clerely according to Scripture noteth vntounto vsus three maner of eatinges, one spirituall onelyonly, which onelyonly good men do, feeding in fayth without the visible Sacrament. An other is both spirituall and Sacramentall, which also good men only do, receiuing the visible Sacrament, with a true sincere charitable fayth. The third maner of eating is Sacramē tall only, which after S. Paule, euell men do vnworthely, and therfore hauehave iudgement and condemnation, and be gilty of our Lords body, not esteming our Lordes body there. And here ariseth the knot of contention with this author, who sayth euell men eate but the Sacramentall bread, wher vntounto I reply, no more do good men neyther, if this authors doctrine of the Sacrament be true, seing he will hauehave it but a figure, If this author will say the effect is other in good men, then in euill men, I will not striue therin. But to discusse this matter euidētly, we must rightly open the truth, and then must consider, the visible Sacraments as they be of Gods ordinaunce, who directeth vsus where to seeke for his giftes, and how, whose working all be it it be not restrayned by his Sacramentes, and therfore God may and doth inuisibly sanctifie and salue as it pleaseth hym: yet he teacheth vsus of his ordinary working in the visible Sacramentes, & ordereth vsus to seeke his giftes of helth and lyfe there,August. de peccat. meri. et remist. lib. 1. Cap. 24. wherupon S. Augustine noteth how Baptisme among the Christian men of Aphrike was very well called health, and the Sacrament of Christes body called lyfe, as in which God geueth helth and lyfe, if we worthely vse them. The ordinaunce of these Sacramentes is Goddes worke, the very author of thē, who as he is in him selfe vniforme, as S. Iames sayth, without alteration, so as Dauid sayth, his workes be true,Iacob. 1. which is asmuch as uniforme, for truth and uniforme aunswereth together. As God is all Goodnes, so all his workes be good.The substance of Gods worke So as considering the substaunce of Gods workes & ordinaunces as they be in themselfe, they be alwayes vniforme, certayne and true, in theyr substance as God ordered them. Among men for whom they be worught and ordered there is varietie, good men, euill men, worthy, vnworthy, but as S. Paule sayth, there is but one Lord one fayth, one Baptisme.Ephe. 4. Math. 13. And the parable of the sower which Christ declared himselfe, sheweth a diuersity of the groundes where the seed did fall, but the seed was all one, that did fall in the good ground, and yt did fall in the naughty ground, but it fructified onelyonly in the good ground, which seed Christ calleth his word.
And in the sixt of S. Iohn sayth,Iohn. 6. Augustinus In Ioh. tract. 27. his word is spirit and life, so as by the teaching of Christ, spirite and lyfe may fall vponupon naughty men, although for theyr malice, it tarieth not nor fructifieth not in them. And S. Augustine according hereunto, noteth how Christes wordes be spirit and lyfe, although thou doest carnally vnderstād them, and hast no frute of them, yet so they be spirite and lyfe, but not to thee, wherby appeareth the substaunce of Gods ordinaunce to be one, though we in the vsing of it vary. The promises of God can not be disapoynted by mans infidelitie,Rom. 3. as S. Paule sayth which place Luther alleageth to shew the vnitie in the substaunce of Baptisme, whither it be ministred to good or euill.2. Corin. 2. But S. Paule to the Corinthians declareth it notably in these wordes. We be the good sauour of Christ in them that be salued, and them that perish. Here S. Paule noteth the sauour good and one to diuers men: but after the diuersitie in men of diuers effectes in them, that is to say, the sauour of life, and the sauour of death, which saying of S. Paule the Greeke scooles gathered by Oecumenius, Oecumenius.open and declare with similitudes in nature very aptly. The doue (they say) and the bèetell, shall feed both vponupon one oyntment, and the beetell dye of it, and the doue strengthned by it. The diuersitie in the effect following of the diuersitie of them that eate, and not of that is eaten, which is alway one. According hereunto S. Augustine agaynst the donatists geueth for a rule the sacramentes to be one in all, although they be not one that receaue & vse them. And therfore to knitte vp this matter for the purpose, I intend and write it, for we must consider the substance of the visible sacrament of Christes body and bloud to be alwayes, as of it selfe it is by Christes ordinaunce, in the vnderstanding wherof, this author maketh variaunce, and would hauehave it by Christes ordinaunce but a figure, which he hath not proued, but and he had proued it, then is it in substaunce but a figure, and but a figure to good men. For it must be in substaunce one to good and bad, and so neyther to good nor bad this sacrament is otherwise dispensed then it is truely taught to be by preaching.
Wherefore if it be more then a figure, as it is in deed, and if by Christes ordinance it hath present vnderunder the forme of those visible signes of bread and wine, the very body and bloud of Christ, as both bene truly taught hitherto, then is the substance of the Sacrament one alwayes as the oyntment was, whether doues eate of it or beteles. And this Issue I ioyne with this author,An Issue. that he shall not be able by any learning to make any diuersitie in the substance of this sacrament, what soeuer diuersite follow in the effect. For the diuersitie of the effect, is occasioned in them that receaue, as before is proued. And then to answere this author. I say that onelyonly good men eate and drinck the body and bloud of Christ spiritually, as I hauehave declared, but all good and euill receiue the visible Sacrament of that substaunce, God hath ordeyned it, which in it hath no variance, but is all one to good and euill.