Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 36
The sixe and thirtieth Chapter createth of the next text by Augustine, & Chrysostome.Hesk.
Fulke.This text is this: it is the spirite that quickeneth, the fleshe profiteth nothing. This text is made so familiar (he saith) that boyes and girles can blatter it against Christes presence in the sacrament, as though they denied the vertue of his fleshe, that denie your carnal presence in the sacrament. But we must heare Saint Augustine. Tract. 27. In Ioan. Quid est quod adi…ngit, &c. What is that he ioyneth? It is the spirite that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing? Let vsus say vntounto him for he suffreth vsus not gainsaying but desirous to know) O Lord good Maister, how doeth not the flesh profite any thing, when then hast said: except a man eate my flesh, & drink my bloud, he shal not hauehave life in him? Doth not life profite any thing? And wherfore are we that that we are, but that we may hauehave eternal life, which thou doest promise by thy flesh? What then is it: it profiteth not any thing? The flesh profiteth nothing, but as they vnderstoode it. For they vnderstoode fleshe so, as it is rent in peeces in a dead bodie, or solde in the shambles, not as it is quickened by the spirit: It is therfore so saide: the flesh profiteth nothing, as it is saide: knowledge puffeth vp a man. Shall we nowe then hate knowledge? God forbid. And what it is then? Knowledge p…ffeth vp? beeing alone without charitie. Therefore he added: But charitie doth edifie. Therefore adde charitie to knowledge, and knowledge shalbe profitable, not by it selfe but by charitie So now likewise the fleshe profiteth nothing, that is the fleshe alone. But let the spirite come to the flesh, as charitie commeth to knowledge, and it profiteth verie much. For if the flesh had profi…ed nothing: the worde should not hauehave beene made flesh that it might dwell in vsus. If Christ hauehave profited vsus much by his flesh, how doeth the flesh profite nothing at all? But the spirite by the flesh hath done some thing for our health. The fleshe was that vessel, marke what it had in it, not what it was. The Apostles were sent, did their flesh profite nothing? If the flesh of the Apostles profited vsus not, could our Lordes flesh not profite vsus? For how came the sound of the word vntounto vsus but by the voyce of the flesh? From whence the stile? From whence the writing? All these workes be of the flesh, but the spirite mouing it as his instrument. Therefore it is the spirite which quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. As they vnderstoode flesh, so do I not giuegive my flesh to be eaten. Maister Heskins doth glorie that he bringeth not this sentence truncately as the heretiques do, but wholy, that the reader should not be defrauded of S. Augustines right meaning, vpō this scripture. And here again he repeateth his rotten distinction, that Christ giueth not his flesh by lumpes & peeces, yet giueth it corporally, & that S. Augustine meaneth none otherwise. But as long a sentence as he rehearsed, he hath omitted the very interpretation of his text in hand. Which Augustine maketh in these wordes: Quid est spiritus & vita? Spiritualiter intelligenda sunt. What is spirite and life spiritually to be vnderstanded: neither is there one worde in all that treatise for the corporall presence, or receiuing. And yet we cōfesse that Christ truly giueth vsus his fleshe, & we are truely fed therewith, but not after a corporall maner, but after a spiritual & vnspeakable maner. Chrysostome is cited hom. 46. In Ioan. Quid igitur? caro, &c. What then? Doth the fleshe profite nothing? He speaketh not of the very flesh, God forbid, but of them that carnally take those things that are spoken. And what is it to vnderstand carnally? Simply as the thinges are spoken, and not to thinke any other thing of them. For th…se thinges that are seene, are not so to be iudged, but all mysteries are to be considered with inwarde eyes, that is spiritually. He that eateth not my flesh, and drinketh not my bloud, hath no life in him selfe. How doeth the fleshe profite nothing without the which no man can liue? See that this particle (The flesh profiteth not any thing) is not spoken of the fleshe it selfe, but of the carnall hearing. M. Hesk. saith that Chrysostome needeth no expositor, to open his exposition. And I am of yt same iudgment. For he is so plaine against al grosse and carnal imagination, about these mysteries, that nothing can be plainer. He saith to vnderstand these thinges in ye sixt of Iohn simply, as they are spoken, is to vnderstād them carnally, which ought not to be, for all mysteries must be vnderstood spiritually, the receiuing of Christ in the sacrament is a mysterie, therfore it must be vnderstāded spiritually.