Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 1 · Part 35
The fiue & thirtieth Chapter proceedeth to the exposition of the same Prophet by S. Augustine & Eusebius.Hesk.
Out of S. Augustine is alledged a long saying lib. Aduersus Iudaeos, but not so long in wordes,Fulke. as short of his purpose. Dominus omnipotens dicit, &c. The Lorde almightie sayeth, I hauehave no pleasure in you, neither will I receiue sacrifice of your hands. Certainly, this you cannot denie ô ye Iewes that not o… ly he doth not take sacrifice as your handes, for there is but one place appointed by the lawe of the Lord, where he hath commaunded sacrifices to be offered by your handes, beside which place, he hath altogether forbidden them. Therefore seeing you hauehave lost this place according to your deserts, the sacrifice also, which was lawfull to be offered there onelyonly, in other place… ye dare not offer. And it is altogether fulfilled which the Prophet saith: And sacrifice will I not receiue at your handes. For if the Temple and the Altar remained to you in the earthly Hierusalem, you might say this were fulfilled in them, whose sacrifices, (being wicked men abiding among you) the Lorde doth not accept: but that he accepteth the sacrifice of other that be of you and among you, which keepe the commaundements of God. But this cannot be saide, for asmuch as there is not one of you all, which according to the lawe, which proceeded from mount Sinay, may offer sacrifice with his handes. Neither is this so forespoken & fulfilled, that the sentence of the Prophes will suffer you to a…nswere: because wee offer not flesh with our hands, with our heart and mouth we offer praise, according to that in the Psalme: Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise. From this place also he speaketh against you which sayth: I hauehave no pleasure in you, &c. Moreouer, that you shuld not thinke that seeing you offer not, and that he taketh no sacrifice at your hands, therefore no sacrifice is offered to God, whereof truely hee hath no neede, who needeth not the goods of any of vsus, yet because he is not without a sacrifice, which is not profitable for him, but for vsus, be adioyneth and sayeth: For from the rising of the Sunne vntil the going downe of the same, my name is made honourable among all the Gentiles, and in eueryevery place a sacrifice is offered to my name, euen a pure sacrifice, because my name is greate among the Gentiles saith the Lorde Almightie. What aunswere yee to these things? open your eyes at the length, & see from the sunne rising to the going downe thereof, that not in one place, as it was appointed among you, but in eueryevery place, the sacrifice of the Christians is offered, not to eueryevery God, but to him that spake these things afore hand, euen to the God of Israel. Wherfore (in another place) he sayth, to his Church: and he that hath deliuered thee, the same God of Israel shalbe called the God of the whole earth. Search ye the Scriptures, in which you thinke to hauehave eternall life, and truely you should hauehave, if in them you could vnderstand Christ and hold him. But search them through and euen they beare witnesse of this pure sacrifice, which is offered to the God of Israel: not of your nation alone, of whose hands he saide he would receiue none, but of all nations which say: come let vsus go vp into the hill of the Lord, neither in one place, as it was commaunded in the earthly. Hierusalem, b…t in eueryevery place, euen in Hierusalem it selfe▪ neither after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedech.
First we must see how M. Heskins note booke deceiued him: for where the words of Augustin in the beginning of this sentence are these: Locus enim vn…to est lege domini constitutus, &c. that is▪ there is but one place appointed by the lawe of the Lord. M. Hesk. hath falsified and set downe locus enim vnus est loco domini constitutus, which he translateth: For there is one place in ye place of God appointed. But this is not the first corruption that we hauehave bewrayed by a great many. Nowe to the matter Maister Heskins still harpeth vponupon one string, that the sacrifice in this saying spoken of cannot be the sacrifice of praise and thankesgiuing, because that is not peculiar to the Christians, but was offered of the Iewes before Christe, and may be yet, if they be conuerted. But I hauehave more than once or twise declared, that here is no such peculiaritie in the matter of the offering, but in the maner of the oblation. And Augustine speaketh not halfe a worde, by which we might deeme, that he refuseth the spirituall sacrifice of the Christians to be the pure sacrifice prophesied in Malachie. If you vrge that he sayeth, it is offered after the order of Melchisedech, and so hath relation to the offering of breade and wine in the Sacrament, although it be no necessarie conclusion: yet Augustin him selfe will tell vsus, that it is a spiritual sacrifice of laude and thanksgiuing. And M. Heskins him selfe directeth vsus to the booke saying: As notable a saying as this hath S. Augustine in an other place also, (and quoteth, lib. 1. Cont, aduersariū legis & Prophetarum) who so listeth to reade, shall finde that, that shall not repent him of the reading.
What place M. Heskins meaneth I knowe not, but in the same booke I read & in the 18. Chapter, that he calleth the death of Christ … singuler and onelyonly was sacrifice. If that sacrifice be but one singuler, and the onelyonly true sacrifice, what manner of sacrifice is the sacrifice of the Masse, which setteth vp a newe altar to ouerthrowe the crosse of Christ? And that you may knowe what sacrifice S. Augustine meaneth, when he nameth the sacrifice of the Church, or the sacrifice of breade and wine, or any such like phrase, he speaketh this in the twentieth Chapter of certeine apocryphall writings, falsly intituled to the Apostles Andrew & Iohn.
Qua fillorum essent, receptae essent ab ecclesia, quae illorum temperibus per Episcoporū succes…iones certissimas vsus que ad nostra & deincap… tempora perseuera…, & immolat Deo in corpore Christi sacrificium …dis: Which if they had bene theirs, they should hauehave bene receiued of the Church, which from their times, by most certeine successions of Bishope, continueth vntounto our times and after, and sacrificeth to God in the bodie of Christ, the sacrifice of lawde and prayse. And let this suffice to discharge Augustine from M. Heskins and the Papistes blasphemous cauelling. Now must we come to Eusebius: which lib. …. Euang. Demonst. cap. 10. writeth thus: The Mosaical sacrifices being reiected he doth by diuine reuelation declare our ordina…ies that was to …, saying: For from the rising of the … the going down of the s…e my name is glorified among the nations, & in eueryevery place … is offred to my name, & a pure sacrifice. Wherefore our sacrifice to the most high God, is the sacrifice of praise. Wee sacrifice to God a full, … & holie sacrifice. We sacrifice after a newe maner, according to the new testament a pure sacrifice, &c. M. Heskins asketh vsus, if we do not see that Eusebius expoundeth the Prophet of the sacrifice of Christes bodie? but wee may well bid him shore vp his eyes, & see, if he do not in plain words expound him of the sacrifice of praise? But because he calleth this sacrifice horrorem adferens, bringing horror, meaning, not a slauish, but a reuerent feare, as is meant to be in all matters of religion, which ought to be handled with feare, and reuerence of Gods Maiestie, vntounto whom they apperteine: he will needes hauehave it the body of Christ, and first, he alledgeth a saying of Dionysius, whom he falsely calleth the disciple of Saint Paule, although he be a writer of good antiquitie: Eccle. Hier. part. 1. cap. 3. Neither is it almost lawfull for any mysterie of the priestly office, to be done, except that his diuine, and most noble sacrament of thankesgiuing doe fulfil is. What he picketh out of this saying, as he noteth not, so I am not of his counsell to knowe, neither why (after his accustomed boldenesse) he translateth, Sacramentum Eucharistiae, the sacrament of Christe. From Dionyse he flitteth to the hyperbolicall amplifications of Chrysostom, which Lib. 6. De Sacerdotio, calleth the sacrament, That sacrifice most full of horror and reuerence, where the vniuersall Lorde of all thinges is daily felt with handes. And de prod. Iud. Hom. 30. The holy and terrible sacrifice, where Christ that was slaine is set foorth. He that will not acknowledge these and such like, to be figuratiue speeches, must enter action against Chrysostom for many heresies: or rather Chrysostome may enter action against him of slaunder and defamation. In the same treatise De Sacerdotio Lib. 3. speaking of the same sacrifice, he sayeth:
You may see the whole multitude of people died and made redde with the precious bloud of Christ. But to shewe that all this is spirituall, he demaundeth, if you thinke your selfe to stand vponupon the earth, when you see these thinges, and not rather that you are translated into heauen, and casting away all cogitations of the flesh, with a naked soule, and pure minde you beholde those thinges that are in heauen. Therefore to conclude, neither Augustine nor Eusebius hauehave spoken any thing to the furtherance of Maister Heskins bill, of the carnal presence.