Answer unto a Crafy and Sophistical Cavillation, Debate · Confutation of book 2 · Section 41
Caunterbury.
WHere in my former booke I found a fault in the allegation of Ciprian it was in deede no little fault, to alleadge those wordes that speake of the change of bread, and to leaue out the example most necessary to be rehersed, which should declare how it was changed, which change is not by Transubstantiation (as the example sheweth) but as it is in the person of Christ, whose humanity was not transubstantiate, although it was inseparabely annexed vntounto the deity.
And the wordes following do not once touch the reall and corporall presence of Christes flesh in the bread, so farre it is from the ouerthrowing of the true catholike fayth by me taught. But Ciprian in that place quite and cleane ouerthroweth, as well your reall presence, as your imagined transubstantiation, as hereafter by Gods grace shall be declared. But first it semeth to me a strange thing, that such a learned man as you take your selfe to be in the tongues, can not English this verbe Infundo, where as eueryevery Gramarian can tell the signification of Fundo, Effundo, and Infundo. But it semeth you hauehave so deinty a stomacke,that you can brooke no meat, but of your owne dressing, though it be neuer so well dressed of other, yea you had rather eate it rawe, then to take it of an other mans dressing. And so much misliketh you all thinges that other men doe, that you be ready to vomite at it.
Infudir. Smyth vseth the word powring.No English can please you to this word (Infundo) but Latine English (as you call it) and that is such English as no English man can vnderstand, nor Latine man neither, but onelyonly in that sense that I hauehave englished it. And I pray thee gentill reader, consider the great weighty cause, why no English can please in this place, and thou shalt finde it nothing els but ignorance,Pouring. eyther of the speach or of God. Powring (sayth he) maketh a successiue working, So doth infusion say I, and therfore in that respect as vnfitte a terme as Powring. But Gods worke (sayth he) is in an instant. So is his powring (say I) and all that he doth, euen aswell as his infusion. All mans workes be done in succession of tyme (for a carpenter can not build a house in a day) but God in one moment could make both heauen and earth. So that God worketh without delay of tyme such thinges as in vsus require leasure and tyme. And yet God hath tempered his speach so to vsus in holy scripture, that he speaketh of himselfe in such wordes, as be vsuall to vsus, or els could we speake here and learne nothing of God. And therfore whether we say infusion or pouring, all is one thing, and one reason. For in vsus they be done by little and little, but God worketh the same sodenly in one moment.
And yet if you had well considered the matter, you should not hauehave found the sacraments of God likesoppes, wherin licour is poured, but you should hauehave found (pouring) an apt word to expresse the abundance of gods working by his grace in the ministration of his holy sacraments. For when there cometh a small rayne then we say, it droppeth, or there is a few droppes: but when there cometh a great multitude of rayne togither for the great abundance of it, we vse in common speach to say, it poureth downe, So that this word (pouring) is a very apt word to expresse the multitude of Gods mercies and the plentifulnes of his grace poured into them, whome he loued, declared and exhibited by his wordes and sacraments. And howsoeuer you be disposed by iesting and scoffing to mocke out all thinges (as your disposition hath bene euer giuen to reprehend thinges that were well) yet the indifferent reader may iudge by this one place, among many other, that you seeke rather an occasion to brable without cause, and with idle wordes to draw your booke out at length, then to seeke or teach any truth.
And if I should play and scoffe in such a matter (as you doe) I might dally with the word of Infusion,Infusion. as you do with ye word powring. For as you reiect my word of powring, bicause some fond reader might fantasy yt bread in the sacrament to be like a soppe, wherin licour were powred, by like reason may I reiect your English Latin of (infuding) bicause such a reader might fantasy therby, the bread to be like water, wherin the diuinity is stieped or infuded. As infused rubarbe is called, when it is stieped certayne houres in stilled water or wine without seething, and so be roses and violets likewise infused, when they be stieped in warme water to make inlep therof. But as poticaries, phisitions, surgions and Alcumists vse wordes of Greeke, Arabike and other strange langwages, purposely therby to hide their sciences from the knowledge of others (so farre as they can) so do you in many partes of your booke deuise many strange termes, and strange phrases of speach, to obscure and darken therby the matter of the sacrament, and to make the same meete for the capacities of very few, which Christ ordayned to be vnderstanded and exercised of all men.
At the last (as you say) you come to your purpose, not to open the truth, but to hide it as much as you may, and to gather of Ciprians wordes your owne faining and not his meaning, who ment nothing lesse then eyther of any Transubstantiation, or of the corporall presence of Christ in the bread and wine.
And to set out Ciprians mynde in few wordes,Ciprians meaning. he speaketh of the eating and not of the keeping of the bread, which when it is vsed in the Lordes holy supper, it is not onelyonly a corporall meate to norish the body, but an heauenly meate to nourish the soules of the worthy receauors, the diuine maiesty inuisibly being present, and by a spirituall transition and change, vniting vsus vntounto Christ, feeding vsus spiritually with his flesh and bloud vntounto eternall life, as the bread being conuerted into the nature of our bodies fedeth the same in this mortall life.
And that this is the mynd of S. Ciprian, is euident aswell by the wordes that go before, as by the wordes following, the sentence by you alleadged. For a little before Ciprian writeth thus. There is geuen to vsus the foode of immortall life differing from common meates, which reteineth the forme of corporall substance, and yet proueth Gods power to be present by inuisible effect. And agayne after he sayth, This common bread after it is changed into flesh and bloud, procureth life and increase to our bodyes. And therfore the weakenes of our fayth, being holped by the customable effect of thinges is taught by a sensible argument, that in the invisible sacraments is the effect of euerlasting life, and that we be made one by a Transition or change, not so much corporall as spirituall. For he is made both bread, flesh and bloud, meate, substance, and life, to his church (which he calleth his body) making it to be partaker of him. Note well these wordes (good reader) and thou shalt well perceaue, that Ciprian speaketh not of the bread kept and reserued, but as it is a spirituall nourishment receaued in the Lordes supper, and as it is frutefully broken and eaten in the remembrance of Christes death, and to them that so eate it, Ciprian calleth it the foode of immortall life. And therfore when he sayth that in the inuisible sacrament is the effect of euerlasting life, he vnderstandeth of them that worthely receaue the sacrament: for to the bread and wine pertayneth not eternall life. Neuertheles the visible sacrament teacheth vsus, that by a spirituall change we be vnited to Christes flesh and bloud, (who is the meate and sustenance of his church) and that we be made partakers of the life euerlasting by the power of God, who by his effectuall working is present with vsus, and worketh with his Sacraments.
And here is agayn to be noted, that Ciprian in this place speaketh of no reall presence of Christes humanitie, but of an effectuall presence of his diuine maiestie, and yet the breade (sayth he) is a foode and nourishment of the body. And thus Ciprian proueth nothing agaynst my sayinges, neither of the reall presence of Christes flesh and bloud, nor of Transubstantiation of bread and wine.
Spirituall.And where you be offended with this word (spirituall) it is not my deuise but vsed of S. Ciprian him selfe, not past .vi. or vii. lines, before the wordes by you cited, where he declareth the spirituall mutation or transition in the Sacraments. And of the change in the sacrament of baptisme, as well as in the sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ, speaketh not onelyonly this author, but also Nazianzen, Emissene, Chrisostome, Ambrose, with all the famous auncient ecclesiasticall authors. And this water doth well, to delay your hotte wine, wherof you hauehave drunken so much, out of the cuppe of the great whore of Babilon, that the true wine (representing to vsus our whole redemption by the true bloud of Christ) you hauehave clearly transubstantiate and taken away. Now followeth my answere vntounto Chrisostome.
Chap. 22.An other authority they hauehave of S. Ihon Chrisostome, which they boast also to be inuincible.Chrisostomus. Chrisostome (say they) writeth thus in a certayne homily De Eucharistia. Doest thou see bread? Doest thou see wine? Do they auoyde beneth, as other meates do? God forbid, thinke not so. For as waxe (if it be put into the fire) it is made like the fire no substāce remayneth, nothing is lefte here: so also thinke thou that the misteries be consumed by the substance of the body.
At these wordes of Chrisostome the Papists do triumph, as though they had won the field. Loe (say they) doth not Chrisostomus the great clerke say most playnly, that we see neither bread nor wine? but that (as waxe in the fier) they be consumed to nothing,The answer. so that no substance remayneth? But if they had rehersed no more, but the very next sentence that followeth in Chrisostome (which craftely and maliciously they leaue out) the meaning of S. Ihon Chrisostome would easely hauehave appeared, and yet will make them blush, if they be not vtterly past shame. For after the foresayd wordes of Chrisostome, immediately follow these wordes.
Wherfore (sayth he) when ye come to these misteries, do not thinke, that you receaue by a man, the body of God, but that with tongues, you receaue fier by the angelles Seraphin. And straight after it followeth thus.
Thinke that the bloud of Saluation floweth out of the pure and godly side of Christ, and so comming to it, receaue it with pure lippes. Wherfore bretheren, I pray you and beseech you, let vsus not be from the church, nor let vsus not be occupied there with vayne communication, but let vsus stand fearefull and trembling, casting downe our eies, lifting vp our mindes, mourning priuily without speach, and reioysing in our hartes.
These wordes of Chrisostom do follow immediately, after the other words, which the Papistes before rehersed. Therfore if the Papistes will gather of the wordes by them recited, that there is neither bread nor wine in the sacrament, I may aswell gather of the wordes that follow, that there is neither priest nor Christes body.
For as in the former sentence, Chrisostome sayth, that we may not thinke what we see bread wine: so in the second sentence he sayth, that we may not thinke that we receaue the body of Christ of the priestes handes. Wherfore if vponupon the second sentence (as the Papists them selues will say) it cannot be truly gathered, that in the holy communion there is not the body of Christ ministred by the priest: then must they confesse also, that it cannot be well and truely gathered vponupon the first sentence, that there is no bread nor wine.
But there be all these thinges togither in the holy communion, Christ himselfe spiritually eaten and drunken, and nourishing the right beleuers: the bread and wine as a sacrament declaring the same: and the priest as a minister therof. Wherfore S. Ihon Chrisostome ment not absolutely, to deny that there is bread and wine or to deny vtterly the priest and the body of Christ to be there, but he vseth a speach which is no pure Negatiue, but a Negatiue by comparison.Negatiues by comparison.
Which fashion of speach is commonly vsed, not onelyonly in the Scripture, and among all good authors, but also in all manner of languages. For when two thinges be compared togither, in the extolling of the more excellent, or abasing of the more vile, is many tymes vsed a Negatiue by comparison, which neuerthelesse is no pure Negatiue, but onelyonly in the respect of the more excellent, or the more base.
As by example. When the people reiecting the prophet Samuell,1. Reg. …. desired to hauehave a king, almighty God sayd to Samuell: They hauehave not reiected thee, but me. Not meaning by this negatiue absolutely, that they had not reiected Samuell (in whose place they desired to hauehave a king) but by that one negatiue by comparison he vnderstood two affirmatiues, that is to say, that they had reiected Samuell, and not him alone, but also that they had chiefely reiected God.
And when the Prophet Dauid sayd in the persone of Christ: I am a worme and not a man: by this negatiue he denyed not vtterly, that Christ was a man, but the more vehemently to expresse the great humiliation of Christ, he sayd that he was not abased onelyonly to the nature of man, but was brought so low, that he might rather be called a worme, then a man.
This maner of speach was familiar and vsuall to S. Paule, as when he sayd: It is not I that do it, but it is the sinne that dwelleth in me. And in an other place he sayth:1. Cor. 1. Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the gospell. And agayne he sayth:1. Cor. 1. My speach and preaching was not in wordes of mans perswasion, but in manifest declaration of the spirite and power. And he sayth also:1. Cor. 3. Neither he that grafteth, nor he that watereth, is any thing, but God that giueth the increase. And he sayth moreouer: It is not I that liue, but Christ liueth within me.Gala. 2. Gala. 6. And, God forbid, that I should reioyce in any thing, but in the crosse of our Lord Iesu Christ. And further, We do not wrastle agaynst flesh and bloud,Ephe. 6. but agaynst the spirites of darkenes.
In all these sentences, and many other like, although they be negatiues, neuertheles S. Paule ment not, clearly to deny that he did that euill wherof he spake,1. Cor. 1. or vtterly to say, that he was not sent to baptise (who in deede did baptise at certayne times, and was sent to do all thinges that pertayned to saluation) or that in his office of setting forth of Gods word he vsed no witty perswasions (which in deede he vsed most discretely) or that the grafter and waterer be nothing, (which be Gods creatures, made to his similitude, and without whose worke there should be no increase) or to say, that he was not aliue (who both liued,Rom. 15. and ranne from countrey to countrey, to set forth Gods glory) or clearly to affirme, that he gloried and reioysed in no other thing, than in Christes crosse (who reioyced with all men that were in ioy, and sorowed with all that were in sorrow) or to deny vtterly,1. Cor. 11. that we wrastle agaynst flesh and bloud: (which cease not dayly to wrastle and warre agaynst our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the diuill.) In all these sentences S. Paule (as I sayd) ment not clearly to deny these thinges, which vndoubtedly were all true, but he ment that in comparison of other greater thinges, these smaller were not much to be esteemed, but that the greater thinges were the chief thinges to be considered. As that sinne committed by his infirmitie, was rather to be imputed to originall sinne or corruption of nature, which lay lurking within him, than to his owne will and consent. And that although he was sent to bapise yet he was chiefly sent to preach Gods word.
And that although he vsed wise and discret perswasions therin, yet the successe therof came principally of the power of God, and of the working of the holy spirite. And that although the grafter and waterer of the gardeyn be some thinges, and do not a little in their offices, yet it is God chiefly that giueth the increase. And that although he liued in this world, yet his chiefe life, concerning God, was by Christ, whome he had liuing within him. And that although he gloried in many other thinges, ye in his owne infirmities, yet his greatest ioy was in the redemption by the crosse of Christ. And that although our spirite dayly fighteth agaynst our flesh, yet our chief and principall fight is agaynst our ghostly enemies,2. Cor. 11. &. 12. Gal. 5. the subtill and puisant wicked spirites and diuels.
1. Pet. 3.The same manner of speach vsed also S. Peter in his first epistle, saying, That the apparaile of women should not be outwardly with brayded here, and setting on of gold, nor in putting on of gorgious apparayle, but that the inward man of the hart should be without corruption.
In which manner of speach he intended not vtterly to forbid all broyding of here, all gold and costly apparell to all women, (for eueryevery one must be apparayled according to their condition, state and degree) but he ment hereby clerely to condemne all pride and excesse in apparayle, and to moue all women that they should study to decke their soules inwardly with all vertues, and not to be curious, outwardly to decke and adourne their bodyes with sumptuous apparayle. And our sauiour Christ himselfe was full of such maner of speaches. Gather not vntounto you (sayth he) treasure vponupon earth,Math. 6. willing therby," rather to set our mindes vppon heauenly treasure, which euer indureth, than vppon earthly treasure, which by many sundry occasions perisheth and is taken away from vsus. And yet worldly treasure must needes be had and possessed of some men, as the person, tyme, and occasion doth serue.
Likewise he sayd: When you be brought before kinges and princes, thinke not what and how you shall answer.Math. 10. Not willing vsus by this negatiue, that we should negligently and vnaduisedly answere we care not what, but that we should depend of our heuenly father, trusting that by his holy spirite, he will sufficiently instruct vsus of answer, rather then to trust of any answer to be deuised by our owne witte and study.
And in the same maner he spake, when he sayd: It is not you that speake but it is the spirite of God that speaketh within you.Math. 10. For the spirite of God is he that principally putteth godly wordes into our mouthes, and yet neuerthelesse we do speake according to his mouing.
And to be short, in all these sentences following,Math. 23. that is to say: a.Math. 23.Call no man your father vponupon earth: b.Math. 10.Let no man call you lord or master: c.Math. 10.Feare not them that kill the body. d.Math. 10.I came not to send peace vponupon earth. e.Iohn. 4.It is not in me to set you at my right hand or left hand. f.Iohn. 5.You shall not worship the father neyther in this mountnor in Ierusalem. g.Iohn. 7.I take no witnes at no man. h.Iohn. 8.My doctrine is not mine. I seeke not my glory.
In all these negatiues, our sauiour Christ spake not precisely and vtterly to deny all the foresayd thinges, but in comparison of them to prefer other thinges, as to prefer our father and Lord in heauen, aboue any worldly father, lord or master in earth, and his feare aboue the feare of any creature, and his word and gospell aboue all worldly peace. Also to prefer spirituall and inward honoring of God in pure hart and mynd, aboue locall, corporall and outward honour, and that Christ preferred his fathers glory aboue his owne.
Now for as much as I hauehave declared at length, the nature and kind of these negatiue speaches (which be no pure negatiues but by comparison) it is easye hereby to make answer to S. Iohn Chrisostom, who vsed this phrase of speach most of any author. For his meaning in his foresayd Homily, was not that in the celebration of the Lordes supper is neyther bread nor wine, neither priest nor the body of Christ, (which the Papistes themselues must needes confesse) but his intent was to draw our mindes vpward to heauen, that we should not consider so much the bread, wine, and priest, as we should consider his diuinity and holy spirite giuen vntounto vsus to our eternall saluation.
And therfore in the same place he vseth so many tymes these wordes Thinke and thinke not, willing vsus by these wordes, that we should not fixe our thoughts and myndes vponupon the bread, wine, priest, nor Christes body: but to lift vp our hartes higher vntounto his spirite and diuinity, without the which his body auayleth nothing, as he sayth himselfe: It is the spirite that giueth life, the flesh auayleth nothing.Iohn. 5.
And as the same Chrisostome in many places moueth vsus, not to consider the water in baptisme, but rather to hauehave respect to the holy ghost, receaued in baptisme, and represented by the water: euen so doth he in this homily of the holy communion, moue vsus to lift vp our myndes from all visible and corporall things to thinges inuisible and spirituall.
In so much that although Christ was but once crucified, yet would Chrisost. hauehave vsus to thincke, that we see him dayly whipped and scourged before our eyes, and his body hanging vponupon the Crosse, and the speare thrust into his side,Gala. 3. and the most holy bloud to flow out of his side into our mouthes. After which manner S. Paule wrote to the Galathians, that Christ was paynted and crucified before their eyes.
Chrysostomus.Therfore fayth Chrisostome in the same homily a litle before the place rehersed: What doest thou O man? diddest not thou promise to the prist which sayd: Lift vp your myndes and hartes, and thou diddest answere: We lift them vp vntounto the Lord? Art not thou ashamed and afrayd being at that same houre found a liar? A wonderfull thing. The table is set forth, furnished with Gods misteries, the Lambe of God is offered for thee, the priest is carefull for thee, spirituall fier cometh out of that heauenly table, the angels Seraphin be there present, couering their faces with vi. winges. All the angelicall power with the priest be meanes aud intercestors for thee, a spirituall fyer cometh downe from heauen, bloud in the cup is druncke out of the most pure side vntounto thy purification. And art not thou ashamed, afrayd and abashed, not endeuoring thy selfe to purchase Gods mercy? O man, doth not thyne owne conscience condemne thee? There be in the weeke 168. houres, and God asketh but one of them to be giuen wholy vntounto him and thou consumest that in worldly busines, in trifling and talking, with what boldnes then shalt thou come to these holy misteries? O corrupt conscience.
Hitherto I hauehave rehersed S. Iohn Chrisostomes wordes, which do shew how our myndes should be occupyed at this holy table of our Lord, that is to say, withdrawen from the consideration of sensible thinges, vntounto the contemplation of most heauenly and godly thinges. And thus is answered this place of Chrisostom, which the Papists tooke for an insoluble, and a place that no man was able to answere. But for further declaration of Chrisostoms mynd in this matter read the place of him before rehersed, fol. 327. and 343,