Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 19
The nineteenth Chapter proceedeth vponupon the same text by Eusebius Emiss. and S. Augustine.Hesk.
Eusebius is cyted out of Hom. 5. pasch. Fulk.Quia corpus assumptum &c. Bicause hee would take his assumpted body from our eyes, and bring it into heauen, it was necessarie that in the day of his supper, he should consecra… vntounto vsus a sacrament of his body and bloud, that it might be celebrated continually by a mysterie, which was offered for our price, that bicause the daily and vnwearied redemption did runne for the health of all men, the oblation of the redemption might be perpetuall, and that eternall sacrifice should liue in memorie, and that true, onelyonly, and perfect sacrifice, should be present in grace, to be esteemed by faith, not by shewe, neither to be iudged by outward sight, but by inward affection. Wherevpon the heauenly authoritie confirmeth, that my flesh is meate in deede, and my bloud is drinke in deede. This sentence being directly against him as eueryevery man that readeth it, may easily perceiue, he is neither ashamed to alledge it, hauing nothing to gather out of it for his purpose, nor yet (yt is worse) most breastly to corrupt it by false translation and wrong distinction or pointing, committing that childish sophisticatiō which is called ab accentu. For where the Latine is, Et perennis victima illa viueret in memoria, & semper pręsens esset in gratia vera, vnica, & perfecta hostia, fide aestimanda non specie &c. hee hath dismembred it by this translation: And that perpetuall sacrifice should liue in memorie, and alway be present in grace. A TRVE ONE ONLY AND PERFECT SACRIFICE, to be esteemed by faith, and not by outward forme, &c. And al bicause he would not acknowledge ye presence of Christ yt onelyonly true sacrifice by grace, which is absent in the bodie, as the purpose of Eusebius is to shewe. And therfore those words that follow are to be vnderstoode by them that goe before. Let all doubtfulnesse of infidelitie therefore departe, seeing hee that is the Authour of the gift, is also witnesse of the trueth. For the inuisible priest with his worde by secrete power conuerteth the visible creatures into the substance of his bodie and bloud. The former sentence sufficiently declareth, that he speaketh of a spiritual and not a carnall conuersion, because his body which is absent from vsus, and carried into heauen, is present with vsus by grace and not otherwise.
Saint Augustine is cyted Tr. 26. in Ioan Cum enim cibo & potu, &c. For as much as men by meate and drinke, do this desire▪ that they should neither hunger nor thirst: nothing perfourmeth this truely, but this meate and drinke, which maketh them of whom it is receiued immortall, and inco…uptible, that is the fellowship of the Saints where peace shalbe & full and perfect vnitie. For therefore truely (as the men of God hauehave vnderstoode it before vsus,) our Lord Iesus Christ commended his bodie and bloud in those thinges, which of many are brought to one certein thing. For the one is made into one of many graynes & so consisteth: the other cōmeth into one of many grapes. Because this sentence is clean contrarie to ye carnal presence, & transubstantiation, you must cal to remēbrance, the glose of a certeine blind Authour, that there be three things in ye sacrament to be considered. The first the sacrament only, which is a signe of an holy thing, and yt is the forme of bread. The second the thing signified, & conteined, that is ye very bodie of Christ. The third is signified but not conteined, that is the mysticall bodie of Christ. But this balde distinction, is so farre of Augustines minde, that he cleane ouerthroweth two partes of it. First the carnall presence of Christes bodie conteined, & when he affirmeth that this meate maketh them of whome it is receiued, immortall and incorruptible, whiche are onelyonly them that receiue it by faith, for if it were conteined, wicked men should also receiue it: but they receiue it not, therefore it is not conteined. Secondly, he ouerthroweth transubstantiation, when he saith that Christe commended his bodie in such thinges, as are made one of many, as one bread of many graines, and one wine of many grapes. For the fourme, by which Heskins meaneth the accidents of bread, is made neither of graynes nor of grapes. Therfore the fourme of Bread is none of those things in which Christ commended his body and bloud.
But when nothing is in Augustine, then the collections of Prosper must helpe on this manner. Hoc est quod dicimus, &c. This it is which we say, which by al meanes we labour to approue, that the sacrifice of the Church, is made by two meanes, and consisteth of two thinges: the visible kinde of the elementes, and the inuisible fleshe and bloud of our Lorde Iesus Christe, both of the sacrament, and of the thing of the sacrament, that is the bodie of Christ: as the person of Christ consisteth of God & man seeing Christ himselfe is very God▪ and verie man. Because euerie thing conteineth in it the nature and trueth of those thinges of which it is made: but the sacrifice of the Church is made of two, the sacrament, and the thing of the sacrament, that is, the bodie of Christ, therefore there is the sacrament, and the thing of the sacrament. This last sentence M. Hesk. hath not translated. But he noteth three things in these words affirmed which ye sacramentaries denie: that is, that the Church hath a sacrifice, that therein is a sacrament, which is the fourmes of bread and wine, and that there is present the very body and bloud of Christ, which he calleth the thing of the sacrament. Concerning the tearme of sacrifice, it is a stale quarrell, whereby he meaneth the sacrifice of thankes giuing, or the Eucharistie. For the formes of bread & wine, that is (as Maister Heskins meaneth) the accidentes, it is false, he hath nothing tending to that end, he saith, Specie elementorum, that is the kinde of elementes, which is the substance, and not the accidentes of bread and wine. And for the presence, heare his owne wordes in the same booke.
Escam vitae accepit & poculum vitę bibit, qui in Christo manet, & Cuius Christus habitator est. Nam qui discordat a Chricto, nec panem cius manducat, nec sanguinem bibit, etiamsi tanto rei sacramentum ad iudicium suę praesumptionis quotidie indifferenter accipiat. He hath receiued the meat of life, and drunke the cuppe of life, which abideth in Christ, & in whom Christ dwelleth. But he that disagreeth from Christ, neither eateth his bread nor drinketh his bloud, although he receiue euerie day indifferently the sacrament of so great a thing, vntounto the condemnation of his presumption.
This place is plaine against the corporall eating of Christe and M. Heskins wise distinction, seeing the wicked by the iudgement of Prosper out of Augustine, eate onelyonly the sacrament that is bread and wine, and not the bodie & bloud of Christ, which is not eaten but by faith.