Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 11
Hesk.The eleuenth Chapter proueth, that as two bodies may be in one place: so the bodie of Christ being one, may be in diuerse places.
Fulk.M. Heskins in this Chapter like a monsterous Gyant, cryeth open battel against naturall Philosophie & reason, and thinketh he hath a sure shield to fight vnderunder the omnipotencie of God. But for as much as the lawe of nature is the lawe and ordinance of God, he doeth nothing else, but set the power of God against his will and decree, in making whereof did concurre, his power, wisdome, and goodnesse. God hath decreede that one body can be but in one place at one time, and that two bodies cannot occupie one proper place at once, nor one body without comixtion of partes, be in another bodye. And therefore both Cranmer and Oecolampadius hauehave truely sayed, that it is vnpossible those thinges should be otherwise, then God hath decreed them. Now riseth vp this Gargantua, and will proue by scripture, that one bodie may be in another, and two bodies in one place, & alledgeth the text Ioan 20. that Iesus came, the dores being shutt, and stoode in the middest of them and saide, peace be with you, and this being testifyed for a miraculous comming in of Christ, proueth that he so comming in passed through dore or wall, as his pleasure was to do. Although the wordes of the texte foreign after the dores were shutt, doth not inforce vsus to acknowledge any miracle, but that he might be let in of the porter at euen, after the dores were shutt vp for feare of the Iewes soudein breaking in vppon the Disciples that were gathered together in that place: yet I will willingly acknowledge a miraculous comming in of Christe, but no passing through the bordes of the dore, or stones of the wall: but that by his diuine power, he did either open the dore and shutt it immediatly after he was passed through, or else at the vttermost, that the substance of the dore or wall gaue place to his diuine presence, and immediatly returned to his naturall state and place.
And whereas M. Heskins, no lesse impudently then vnlearnedly, doth charge Cranmer with falsifying the Scripture, where he affirmeth, that Christ might as well come into the house when the dore was shutt, as the Apostles coulde go out of prison, the dore being shutt, Act. 5. he doth nothing else but bewray his great folly, ioyned with no lesse malice against the trueth. Cranmer was not ignorant, that the Angell opened the dore to the Apostles, and yet shutt it againe so close, that it could not be perceiued that it had beene opened, euen …o might the Angell doe at the passage of our Sauiour Christe. What absurditie or repugnance is here, but in such an absurde persons eare, as Heskins is, that ouerthroweth all lawe & order of nature to establish his brutish, and monstrous errour.
But nowe we shall heare these monsters brought forth of the doctours, which Scripture hath not, and nature abhorreth: And firste shalbe Chrysostome Hom. de Ioan. Bapt. Sancta Maria, beata Maria, &c. Holy Maria, blessed Marie, both a mother, and a virgine. Shee was a virgine before birth, a virgine after birth. I marueile at this, howe of a virgine, a virgine should be borne, and after the birth of a virgine▪ the mother should be a virgine. Will you knowe howe he was borne of a virgine, and after the birth, how shee was both a mother and a virgine? The dores were shutt, and Iesus entred in. No man doubteth, but that the dores were shutt, he that entred by the dores that were shutt, was no phantasie, he was no spirite, he was verily a body. For what sayd he? looke and see, that a spirite hath no flesh and bones, as ye see mee hauehave. He had flesh, he had bones, and the dores were shutt. How did fleshe and bones enter when the dores were shutt? The dores are shutt, and hee doth enter, whome wee sawe not goe in. How did he go in? all things are close, there is no place by the which he might go in, and yet he is within, which entered in. Thou knowest in howe it was done, and doest referre it to the omnipotencie of God. GiueGive this also to the omnipotencie of God, that he was borne of a virgine. In these wordes Chrysostome saith, that Christe might as well bee borne of a Virgine, as hee entered into the house after the doores was shut, this was not without a miracle, and no more was that. But for two bodies in one place at one instant, hee speaketh nothing as yet. No more doth Hieronyme In Apol. cont. Iouin. Respondeant mihi &c. Let them aunswere me howe Iesus entered in, the doores being shut, when he shewed his handes to bee felt, and his side to be considered, and shewed both flesh and bones, least the trueth of his body should be thought to be a fantasie: And I will aunswere howe Saint Marie is both mother and a Virgine, a Virgine before birth, a mother before she was knowne of man.
VponUpon these places Maister Heskins doth inferre, that if the doores did open as the going in of Christ, which (hee saith) is a shaddowing of the miracle, and a falsifying of the scriptures, as though it were not miraculous ynough, except it tooke away the trueth of Christes body, and ouerthrewe the immutable decree of GOD, then his entering In, could not proue that the clausures of the virginitie (I vse his owne wordes) of the mother of Christ notwithstanding his birth remained alwayes closed, which the Doctours intended to proue. I would not for shamefastnesse, enter into discourse of the secrets of virginitie, & last of all the high mysteries of the incarnation and natiuitie of our sauiour Christe, of the immaculate Virgine Marie, in any such Physicall questions, but that I am driuen vntounto it by this shamelesse aduersarie. And yet will I onelyonly alledge the authoritie of the scripture, referring the collection to the reuerent & shamefast consideration of the honest reader. Saint Luke writeth of his presentation at Hierusalem. As it is written in the lawe of the Lorde, eueryevery manchilde that first openeth the matrice, shall bee called holy to the Lorde. Luke 2. According to this text, the miracle of his natiuitie preseruing her virginitie, and of his entering in, the doores beeing shut, are verie like in deede, and agreeable to the Doctours meaning.
But hee proceedeth with Chrysostomes authoritie, Hom. 86. in Ioan. Dignum autem dubitatione est &c. It is woorthie of doubt, howe the incorruptible body did receiue the fourme of the nayles, and could be touched with mortall hande. But let not this trouble thee. For this was of permission. For that body being so subtile and light, that it might enter in the doores being shut, was voyde of all grossenesse or thicknesse: but that his resurrection might be beleeued, he shewed him selfe such a one. And that thou mightest vnderstand, that it was euen he that was crucified, that none other did rise for him, therefore he roase againe with the tokens of the crosse. Except wee vnderstand Chrysostome fauourably in this place, where hee denyeth the glorified body of Christe to hauehave any thicknesse, but that it might pearce through all thinges as a spirite, wee shall make him author of a great heresie, both concerning the body of Christe, and concerning our bodyes which after the resurrection, must bee made conformable to his glorious body, Philip. 3. But in an other place, as wee shall heare afterwarde, hee doeth eyther expound or correct him selfe in this matter. And yet this that hee saith here, helpeth not Maister Heskins one whit, and that for two causes, one, for that hee speaketh heere of the glorified bodye of Christe, who instituted his sacrament before his bodye was glorified.
An other cause, for that hee doeth not heere make two bodyes in one place, or one bodye in an other, but to auoyde that absurditie, doeth transfourme the bodye of Christe into the subtiltie and thinnesse of a spirite. But in an other sentence, De resurrect. Hom. 9. he is of an other minde concerning the bodye of Christe. Non est meum ludificare phantasmate, vanam imaginem visus si timet, veritatem corporis manus & digitus exploret. Potest fortassis aliqua oculos caligo decipere, palpatio corporalis verum corpus agnoscat. Spiritus, inquit, carnem & ossa non habet sicut me videtis habere: Quod Ostia clausa a penetrani, sola est virtus Diuini spiritus, non sola carnis substantia. It is not my propertie to delude my disciples with a fantasie, if your sight feare a vaine image, let your hand and fingers trie out the trueth of my body. Some myste peraduenture may deceiue the eyes, let bodily handling acknowledge a true body. A spirite (saith he) hath neither flesh nor bones, as you see mee to hauehave. That I pearced through the doores beeing shut, it is the onelyonly power of the diuine spirite, not the onelyonly substaunce of the flesh. In these wordes, hee ascribeth it to the onelyonly power of his diuine spirite, that he passed through when the doores were shut, and not to the subtiltie of his glorified body, as in the former sentence. Likewise in Ioan. Hom. 90. Qui intrauit per ostia clausa, non erat phantasma, non erat spiritus, verè corpus erat. Hee that entered in by the doores beeing shut, was no fantasie, hee was no spirite, hee was a body truely and in deede. But wee must passe ouer vntounto Saint Ambrose, in Luc. lib. 10. cap. 4. Habuit admirandi causam Thomas &c. Thomas had a cause to maruell, when hee sawe all thinges being shut vp and closed, the body of Christe by clausures without all wayes for body to enter, the ioyntes beeing vnbroken, to bee entered in amongest them. And therefore it was a woonder, howe the corporall nature passed through the impenetrable body, with an inuisible comming, but with inuisible beholding, easie to be touched, hard to bee iudged. In these woordes of Saint Ambrose, nothing can bee certainely gathered, bycause hee doth not him selfe determine after what manner the body of Christe came in, but onelyonly sheweth what cause Thomas had to doubt and maruell, sauing that in an other place, I finde him write suspitiously of the trueth of the body of Christe, and of the true properties thereof. For in his booke De mysterijs initiandis Cap. 9. hee hath these woordes, speaking of the body of Christ: Corpus enim Dei corpus est spirituale, Corpus Christi corpus est diuini spiritus. The body of GOD is a spirituall body. The body of Christe is the body of a diuine spirite. These sayinges for reuerence of the Authours, may hauehave a gentle construction, but otherwise they are not directly consonant to the Catholique confession of the trueth of Christes body, and the properties thereof, remayning euen after his Assention, as hath bene discussed by the scriptures, especially after the Church was troubled with the heresies of the Eutychians and Monotholites.
Nowe followeth Saint Augustine, De agone Christiano Cap. 24. Nec eos audiamus &c. Neither let vsus giuegive eare to them that denye, that the body of Christe is risen againe of such qualitie, as it was put into the graue. Neither let is moue vsus that it is written that hee appeared soudenly to his disciples after the doores were shut, that therefore we should denye it to bee an humane body, bicause wee see that contrarie to the nature of this body, it entered by the doores that were shut, for all thinges are possible to GOD. For if hee could before his passion make it as cleare as the brightnesse of the Sunne, wherefore could he not after his passion, also in a moment of time, bring it into as much subtiltie as hee would, that hee might enter in by the doores that were shut.
Here first of all Maister Heskins according to his accustomed manner of falsification, translateth tale corpus, the same body, as though there were no difference betweene substaunce: and qualitie. Secondly it is manifest, that Augustine in this place, iudgeth (as in other places most plainely) that the body of Christe nowe glorified, retayneth not onelyonly the substaunce, but also the properties and qualities of a true body, which hee had before he suffered. Although for that moment, he supposeth the body of Christe might be subtiliated, by his Diuine power, to passe through the doores being shut, and yet affirmeth nothing directly, that it was so, but rather that it might bee so. Whereas more probably hee might hauehave thought, that eyther the doore opened: or the nature of the boordes gaue place, then that the body of Christe for the time was altered.
The like place hee hath in him Epistle to Volusianus, which I maruell Maister Heskins hath not noted: Ep. 3. Ipsa virtus per inuiolatae matris virginea viscera membra infantis dutie, quae posted per clausa ostia membra i…uenis introduxis. The same power brought foorth his body being an infant, by the Virginall bowels of his vndefiled mother, which afterward brought in his body being a yong-man, by the doores that were shut. Of his natiuitie whereunto this Doctour doth compare his comming in, after the doores were shut, I hauehave shewed before howe it was, out of the scripture. But let vsus heare what Cyrillus saith of ye same matter, In Ioan. lib. 12. cap ▪ 53. clausu foribus &c. After the gates were shut, the Lord by his almightie power, the nature of things being ouercome, soudenly entered vntounto his disciples: let no man therfore enquire, how the body of our Lord entred in, after the gates were shut, when he may vnderstand that these things are described by the Euangelist not of a bare man a… we be nowe, bu… of the almightie sonne of God. For seeing he is true God, he is not subiect to the lawe of nature, which thing did appeare in other his miracles also. Here Maister Heskin… after his wonted sync…itie, translateth …, through the gates beeing shut, otherwise the place of Cyrill is of our side, that hee chaungeth not the nature of his body, but ouercame the nature of other thinges, and so made a passage for him selfe, although the gates were shut, as in his other … hee chaunged not the nature of his body▪ when hee walked on the waters. … the nature of the waters. Hee altered not the trueth of his bodye, when hee arose out of the sepulchre, but remoued the stone from the doore thereof &. For it stoode Cyrillus vppon: by reason of the Eutychian …eresie, to preserue in all thinge the true properties of the body of Christ, which in all places he doth …onstantly affirme. But the elder fathers, before they … by that here…ie to search out the trueth did … sometimes … sometimes inconsideratly was beside …hem, affirmes, that he… … already …, Hilariu… do…h not onelyonly passed through the Lands walle… with his body, in Psalme. 55. but al… that his body felt … paine in the time of his passion: In. Psalm. 4… … and in other p…aces: whiche i… a gro…e and wicked errour, wherevnto hee was carried, whyle he studied too much to aduaunce his Diuinitie, in the humane nature.
Howe be it the trueth of his naturall bodie by other Doctours was in all times affirmed, especially after Eutyches; had broched his wicked heresie. First Origen, as it is cited by Pamphilus in his apollogie out of his booke Peria…chie translated by Ruffinus, thus writeth: Corpus assumpfit nostro corpori simile: eo solo differens, quod natum ex virgine espiritu sancto est. He toke vponupon him a body like vntounto our body: in this point onelyonly differing, that it was borne of a virgine by the holy Ghoste. This place would the rather bee noted, because it conteineth the consent of three auncient Doctours, of seueral ages. Origenes, Pamphilus, and Ruffinus. Afterward in the counsel of Chalcedon, & the sixt of Constantinople, they were condemned heretiques, whiche denied either the trueth of the humane nature of Christ, or the true properties thereof. At in this latter counsell was allowed the Epistle of Leo, Ad Flauianum written in time of the former, wherein he writeth: Simul suit & altitud… Deitatis, & humilitas carnis, seruante vtraque natura et…am post aditatationem, fine defectu, proprietatem suam. Together be both the height of the Godhead, and the humilitie of the fleshe, both the natures, euen after the adiu…rion, keeping the propertie without defect. And againe, Nusqu…m … differentia naturarum propter vnitatem, sed potius salua proprietate … …turae in vnum personam, vnam subsistentium concurrente. In no place taking away the difference of the natures, because of the vnitie, but rather hauing the proprietie of both the natures, concurring in one person, one subsistence.
Those testimonies … shewe the iudgement of the Church concerning this matter, when iust occasion was giuen, narrowly to search out the trueth in the conclusion of this Chapter, Maister Heskins yeelding a reason of his trauell in this matter, alledgeth two causes, the one that the miracle might not be shadowed the other, that he might shew the workes of Christe to be aboue nature. And both these might stand without his labour. For it was a miracle aboue nature, that the doores of their owne accorde, opened to our sauiour Christ at his entrie, as when Peter also came foorth of the prison Actes 12. But whereas he bringeth in an example of the eternitie of the worlde, which is held by some naturall philosophers, to proue that Gods workes are aboue nature, he sheweth a grosse capacitie, that can not put a difference betweene the errours of naturall Philosophers, and the true lawe and order of nature made by God himselfe, which is vndoubtedly knowen to all wise men, as in these propositions nowe in question. For it is not the opinion of philosophers we stande vponupon, but vponupon the trueth of thinges naturall, which either sense or first intellections doth manifestly approue vntounto vsus. For as Tertullian saith, speaking of the trueth of Christes body: Non lic…t nobis in dubàm sensus istos reuocare; n… & in Christ… d… side illoru… deliberemus. It is not lawful for vsus to call in doubt these senses, least in Christe also we should stand in deliberation of the credit of them. The like is to be iudged of such trueth in naturall causes▪ as Christ the true light hath kindled in the mindes of naturall men, to see the works of God in his creatures, lest beside horrible confusion of all thinges, we be driuen also into blasphemou… errour….