Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 51
The one and fiftieth Chapter sheweth the minde of Iunencus, & Euseb. Emissen, vponupon the wordes of Christ.Hesk.
Iuuencus a Christian Poet is cited Lib. 4. Euang. Histor. Haec vbi dicta dedit palmis sibi frangere panem, &c. Fulke.When he had thus said, he tooke bread in his handes, and when he had giuen thankes he diuided it to his disciples, and taught them that he deliuered vntounto them his owne bodie. And after that our Lorde tooke the cuppe filled with wine, he sanctified it with thankesgiuing, and giueth it to them to drinke, and teacheth them that he hath diuided, to them his bloud, and saith this bloud shall remitte the sinnes of the people. Drinke you this my bloud. Because this Poet, doeth but onelyonly rehearse the historie in verse, without any exposition and interpretation, and saith no more then the Euangelistes say: I will not stand vponupon him, onelyonly I will note the vanitie of Maister Heskins, which like a young child that findeth miracles in euerie thing he seeth, still noteth a plain place for Maister Iewel, a plaine place for the proclaymer: when either there is in it nothing for his purpose, or as it falleth out oftentimes, much against him.
Euseb. Emissen is cited Hom. 5. Pasc. Recedat omne, &c. Let all doubtfulnesse of infidelitie depart. For truely he which is the auctour of the gifte, is also the witnes of the trueth. For the inuisible priest by secrete power doth with his worde conuert the visible creatures into the substance of his bodie & bloud saying thus: This is my bodie. And the sanctification repeated: take and drinke saith he, this is my bloud. This place hath beene often answered, to be ment of a spirituall and not a carnall conuersion, as diuerse other places out of ye same homilie alledged by M. Hesk. himself, doe proue. First it foloweth immediately. Ergo vt, &c. Therfore as at the will of our Lord sodenly commanding, of nothing the height of the heauens, the depths of the waters, the wide places of the earth were in substantiall beeing: euen so by like power in the spirituall sacramentes, vertue is giuen to the word and effect to the thing. Therefore how great and notable thinges, the power of the Diuine blessing doeth worke, and how … ought not seeme to the too strange and impossible that earthly and mortall thinges are chaunged into the substance of Christ, aske of thy selfe which now art borne againe into Christe. Here saith M. Heskins, he proueth the chaunge possible, I graunt, and with all sheweth what manner a chaunge it is, euen such a one as is in regeneration, namely spirituall. The same is shewed in the other places following. Non dubites quispi…, &c: Neither let any man dout, that by the wil of the Diuine power, by the presence of his high maiestie, the former creatures may passe into the nature of the Lordes bodie, when he may see man himselfe by the workmanship of the heauenly merciemercy, made the bodie of Christ. And as any man comming to the faith of Christ, before the wordes of baptisme, is yet in the band of the olde debt, but when they are rehearsed, he is forthwith deliuered from all dregges of sinnes: So when the creatures are set vponupon the holie altars to be blessed with heauenly wordes, before they be consecrated by inuocation of the highest name, there is the substance of bread and wine, but after the wordes of Christe, the bodie and bloud of Christ. And what maruell is it, if those things, which he could create with his word, beeing created, he can conuerte by his worde? Yea rather it seemeth to be a lesse miracle, if that which he is knowne to hauehave made of nothing, he can now when it is made, chaunge into a better thing. VponUpon these sayings Maister Heskins vrgeth the chaunge. I acknowledge the chaunge, and vrge the kinde or manner of chaunge to be spirituall, according to the examples of baptisme & regeneration. VntoUnto these authorities hee annexeth a large discourse of transubstantiation, and citeth for it diuers testimonies olde and newe, what the olde are, we will take paynes to viewe, as for the younger sorte, we will not sticke to leaue vntounto him.
First Gregorie Nicene is cited, Serm. Catech. de Diuin. Sacram. Sicut antem qui panem videt, quodammodo corpus videt humanum, &c. And as he that seeth bread, after a certeine manner, seeth a mans bodie, because bread beeing in the bodie becommeth a bodie: so that diuine bodie, receiuing the nourishment of bread, was after a certeine manner the same thing with that meate, (as we hauehave said) beeing turned into the nature of it. For th…t, which is proper to all flesh, we confesse to hauehave apperteined to him. For euen that bodie was susteined with bread, but that bodie, because God the WORDE dwelled in it obteined Diuine dignitie. Wherefore we doe nowe also rightly belieue, that the bread sanctified by the worde of God, is chaunged into the bodie of God the WORDE. Maister Heskins after his vsuall manner translateth Quodammodo in a manner, if not falsely, at the least obscurely. But that worde Quodammodo, that is after a certeine manner, looseth all the knotte of this doubt. For euen as the bodie of CHRISTE was bread after a certeine manner, because it was nourished with bread, and bread was after a certeine manner the bodie of Christ: euen so we beleeue, that the sacramentall bread is after a certeine manner chaunged into the bodie of Christ, that it may be the spirituall foode of our soules.
Ambrose is cited De his, qui initian. Cap. 9. Where Maister Heskins beheadeth the sentence, for it is thus: Prior enim …ux quàm vmbra, veritas quàm figura, corpus authoris quàm manna de coelo. For light is before the shadowe, the trueth before the figure, the bodie of the authour before manna from heauen. Which wordes we may vnderstand, howe he taketh the bodie of Christe, that sayeth it was before manna, namely, for the effecte of his death and sacrifice perfourmed by his bodie. But M. Heskins beginneth at these wordes. Forte dicat, &c. Peraduenture thou mayst say. I see another thing. How doest thou assure me that I take the bodie of Christ? And this remaineth for vsus to proue. Howe many examples therefore doe we vse, that we may proue this not to be that which nature hath formed it, but which the blessing hath consecrated, and that there is greater force of blessing, then of nature, for by blessing nature it selfe is chaunged?
Moses helde a rodde, hee cast it do…ne, and it was made a serpent. Againe, he tooke the serpent by the tayle, and it re…rueth into the nature of the rodde. Thou seest therefore by the prophets grace, the nature of the serpent and of the rodde to … beene twise changed: And after many exāples: Quod si, &c. If then the benediction of man was of so great power, that is chaunged nature, what say we of the very diuine consecration, where the very wordes of our Lorde and Sauiour doe worke. For this sacrament which thou reciuest is made with the worde of Christ. And againe. Thou hast read of all the workes of the worlde, that he saide & they were made, be commanded and they were created. Therefore the worde of Christ which could of nothing make that which was not, can it not change those thinges that are, into that they are not? For it is no lesse thing to giuegive newe natures to thinges, then to chaunge natures. Hitherto you hauehave heard Ambrose speaking earnestly for a change of nature, in the sacrament, now heare him expound it in the same place for a spirituall change: Vera vtique caro Christi quae crucifixa est, quae sepulta est: verè ergo carnis illius sacramentum est. Ipse clamat Dominus Iesus: Hoc est corpus mo…m: ante benedictionem verborum coelestium, ali… species nominatur, post consecrationem, Corpus Christi significatur. Ipse dicit sanguinem suum, ante consecrationem a…ud dicitur, post. consecrationem sanguis nuncupatur. It was the verie fleshe of Christ which was crucified, which was buried: therefore this is truely a sacrament of that flesh, our Lord Iesus crieth out saying, This is my bodie. Before the benediction of the heauenly wordes, it is called another kinde, after the consecration, the bodie of Christ is signified. He himselfe saith, it is his bloud, before consecration it is called another thing, after consecration it is called bloud. And in the same place againe. In illo sacramento Christus est, quia corpus est Christi, non ergo corporalis esca, sed spirituali… est. In that sacrament Christ is, because the bodie of Christe is. Therefore it is not corporall meate but spirituall meate. Wel then, ye bread is chaunged from the nature of cōmon bread, to be a true sacrament of the bodie of Christ, wherby Christ his bodie is signified, and to be spiritual meate, and this is the change and conuersion he speaketh of, and nor the Popish transubstantiatiō. Next is alledged Chrysostome, Hom. 83. in Matth. Non sunt, &c. These are not the works of mans power, he that then in that supper made these things, he also now worketh, he performeth them. We holde the order of ministers, but it is he which doth sanctifie and change these things. Here is a change or transmutatiō, but no word of ye maner of ye chaunge, therfore it maketh nothing for Popish transubstantiation, and this place hath beene more then once answered before, by Chrysost. authoritie. After him he citeth Cyrillus ad Colosirium in these words. V…uificati…em, &c. The quickening WORDE of God vniting himselfe to his own flesh made that also quickning. How when the life of God is in vsus, the WORD of God being in vsus, shall our bodie also be able to giuegive life? But it is an other thing for vsus to hauehave the sonne of God in vsus after the manner of participation: and an other thing, the same to hauehave beene made flesh, that is, to hauehave made the bodie which he tooke of the blessed virgin his owne bodie. Therefore it was meete, that he should be after a certeine manner vnited to our bodies, by his holie flesh & precious bloud, which we receiue in the quickening blessing, in bread and wine. For least we should abhorre fleshe and bloud set vponupon the holie altars, God condescending to our fragilities, inspireth to the thinges offered, the powre of life, turning them into the trueth of his owne flesh, that the bodie of life may be found in vsus all, certeine seede giuing life. Here Maister Heskins in his translation cleane leaueth out Quodammodo, after a certeine manner Christe is vnited to our bodies by the sacrament, and so is this chaunge made after a spirituall manner, for otherwise this place is directly against transubstantiation, where he saith we receiue the flesh and bloud of Christ in bread and wine.
Euthymius is the next In Matth 26. Quemadmodum, &c. As he did supernaturally Deifie (as I may so say) his assumpted flesh, so he doeth also vnspeakably chaunge these thinges into his quickening bodie and his precious bloud, and into the grace of them. When he saith the bread and wine are chaunged into the grace of his bodie and bloud, it is easie to vnderstand, that he meaneth a spirituall chaunge, and the last clause is an exposition of the former, they are chaunged, into the bodie and bloud of CHRISTE, that is, into the grace of them.
Remugius followeth 1. Cor. Cap. 10. The fleshe whiche the worde of God the father tooke vponupon him in the wombe of the virgin in vnitie of his person, and the breade which is consecrated in the Church, are one bodie of Christe, for as that flesh is the body of Christ: so this bread passeth into the bodie of Christe, neither are they two bodies but one bodie. He meaneth, that the bread is a sacrament of the very and onelyonly true bodie of Christ, otherwise his antiquitie is not so great, to purchase him authoritie, but as a Burgesse of the lower house, what so euer he speake. The rest that remaine although I might well expound their sayings so, as they should not make for Popish transubstantiation, which the Greeke Church did not receiue: yet beeing late writers out of the compasse, as Damascen, Theophylact, Paschasius, I omit them. But of all these doctors, M. Heskins gathereth, that it is a maruelous and wonderfull worke, that is wrought in this chaunge of the sacramentall bread and wine, therefore he would proue it cā not be into a bare token, or figure, but it may well be into a spirituall meate, to feede vsus into eternall life, which is a wonderful and great work of God, as likewise that the washing of the bodie in baptisme, should be the washing of the soule from sinne. And therfore be saith very lewdly, yt the institution of sacramental signes, as the Pascall lambe, and such like, is no wonderfull worke of God, and as fondly compareth he the institution of sacramentes with bare signes and tokens of remembrance, as the twelue stones in Iordane, &c. And yet more lewdly, with the superstitious bread vsed to be giuen to the Cathechumeni in Saint Augustines time, that had no institution of God. Finally touching the determination and authoritie of the late Laterane counsell for transubstantiation, as we doe not esteeme it beeing contrarie to the worde of God: so I hauehave in ye first booke shewed what a grosse errour it committed, in falsification of a text of scripture, out of Saint Iohns Gospell.