Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 37 – Part 40
The seuen and thirtieth Chapter proceedeth vponupon the same text, by Theophylact, & S. Bernarde.Hesk.
Theophylacte following Chrysostome,Fulke. as he doth very much, whē he is not carried from him by the corruption of his time, saith That the wordes of Christ must be vnderstood… spiritually: Whervpon M. Hesk. maketh an obiection, how those words may be vnderstood spiritually, & yet ye carnal presence & receiuing retained? He answereth, yt the Papists also confesse, the words of Christ must be vnderstode spiritually, and first alledgeth Theophylacte, to proue that he allowed the carnal presence, which though they do not vndoutedly proue it, yet considering ye time in which he liued, it may be granted that he did allow it. What then? Marie spiritual vnderstāding letteth not ye carnal presence. But I hauehave shewed before yt while Theophylact wold followe Chrysost. & yet mainteine the errour of his time, no maruel though he were contrarie to himself. But spiritual vnderstanding by M. Hesk. definition, is to vnderstand, yt these thinges are not done by any naturall meane, but by the spirit of God, namely transubstantiation & such like. But Chrysostom as we sawe in the Chapter before, determined otherwise of spirituall vnderstanding of this scripture, namely, that the sayings must not be taken simply as they are spokē, but as mysteries be considered wt ye inward eyes. But M. Heskins hath a plaine place for the proclaymer out of S. Aug. serm. Ad Infant: Quod videtis in altari panis est, &c. That which you see on the altar is bread and the cuppe, which also your eyes do shew you. But that faith requireth to be instructed: the bread is the bodie, the cup is the bloud. In the mind of some man such a thought may arise, Our Lorde Iesus Christ we know whence he receiued flesh, namely of the virgin Marie, he was nourished, grewe vp, was buried, rose again, & ascended into heauen, thither he lifted vp his bodie, from whence he shall come to iudge both the quick & the dead. There he is now siting at the right hand of the father, how is therfore bread his bodies? or that which is in the cuppe how is it his bloud? Brethren, therefore those things are called sacraments, because one thing is seene in them, another thing is vnderstanded. That which is seene, hath a corporall forme, that which is vnderstoode hath a spirituall fruite. What plainnes is in this place, except it be against transubstantiation, and the reall presence, let the readers iudge. And withal I must admonish them, that M. Hesk. citeth it farre otherwise then it is in Augustine, beside yt he leaueth out that which followeth, & maketh all the matter as plain as a pack staffe, which are these words: Corpus ergo Christi, &c. Therfore if yu wilt vnderstand the body of Christ, heare the Apostle saying to the faithful: you are the bodie of Christ & his mē bers. If you therefore be the bodie of Christ & his members, your mysterie is set on ye table, you receiue ye Lords mysterie, you answer Amen to yt which you are, & in answering you consent. Thou hearest therefore the body of Christ, & thou answerest Amen. Be thou a mēber of the bodie of Christ, that thy Amen may be true. Why then in bread? Let vsus here bring nothing of our owne. Let vsus also heare the Apostle. Therfore when he spake of this sacrament he saith: One bread, we being many are one bodie. Vnderstand this and reioyce. By these wordes it is moste manifest that Augustine excludeth the carnall presence, affirming the elementes to be the bodie and bloude of Christ, euen as we are the bodie and members of Christ, and that is spiritually & mystically: & as we are ye bread, namely by significatiō, & not by transubstantiation. The testimonies of Algerus and Bernard I leaue to M. Hesk. for that they are without the compasse of the challenge.
The eight and thirtieth Chapter endeth the exposition of this text by Euthymius and Lyra.Hesk.
Euthymius is cited In 6. Ioan. in these words: Spiritus est qui viuificat, &c. It is the spirite that quickeneth. Fulk.Now he calleth the spirit, the spiritual vnderstanding of those things which are said: likewise the flesh, to vnderstand them fleshly. For the speech is not now of his flesh which quickeneth. Therefore he saith: to vnderstand these thinges spiritually, giueth that life, which I spake of before: but to vnderstand them carnally it profiteth nothing. Maister Hesk. wold fain make Euthymius to speak for him, if he could tell how to wring him in, but it wil not be. Spiritual vnderstanding is, as Chrysost. before in the 36. Chap. hath declared, & not as M. Heskins would racke it, to make it stand with his grosse and carnal vnderstanding. From the iudgement of Lyra as no compotent Iudge, I appeale, although in this place he speake nothing for M. Heskins, but rather against him, for he agreeth with the rest that the wordes must be spiritually vnderstanded.
Hesk.The nine and thirtieth Chapter beginneth the exposition of the next text by S. Augustine and Cyrill.
Fulk.The text is this: the wordes that I speake vntounto you are spirite and life, of which Augustine writeth thus: Tra. 27. In Ioan. Quid est, &c. What is it, they are spirite and life? They are spiritually to be vnderstoode. Hast thou vnderstoode them spiritually? they are spirite and life. Hast thou vnderstoode them carnally? Euen so also they are spirite and life, but not to thee. M. Heskins hauing once made a blind determination of spirituall vnderstanding, taketh spirituall vnderstanding wheresoeuer he findeth it for carnal vnderstanding, & carnall vnderstanding for spirituall vnderstanding, without all ryme or reason.Hom. 46. in Ioan. But still Chrysostome lyeth in his way: to vnderstand carnally, is to vnderstand things simply as they are spoken, for all mysteries must be vnderstood with inward eyes, that is, spiritually. When the inward eyes see the bread they passe ouer the creatures, neither do they thinke of that bread, which is baked of the baker, but of him, which called himselfe the bread of eternal life. Cyril is cited Cap. 24. In 6. Ioan. Verba quae, &c. The wordes which I hauehave spoken to you are spirit and life. He sheweth that his whole bodie is full of quickening vertue of the spirite. For here he called his very fleshe, spirite, not because it lost the nature of flesh, & is changed into the spirite: but because beeing perfectly ioyned with it, it hath receiued the whole power to quicken. Neither let any man think, this to be spoken vndecently, for he that is surely ioyned to the Lorde, is one spirite with him. How then shal not his flesh be called one with him? It is after this manner therefore which is saide: you thinke I said this earthly and mortall bodie of his owne nature to be quickening or giuing life, but I spake of the spirit & life. For the nature of the flesh of it self cānot quicken, but the power of the spirite hath made the fleshe quickening. Therefore the words, which I hauehave spokē, that is those things which I spoke vntounto you are spirite and life, by which my fleshe also liueth and is quickening. Cyrill hauing his minde still bent against the Nestorians, earnestly auoucheth ye trueth of Christes flesh vnited to his Diuinitie, but for M. Hesk. purpose he saith nothing at all, I meane for the carnal maner of receiuing Christes fleshe in the sacrament. The name of Capernaites M. Hesk. so much misliketh, that he would turne it ouer to vsus, if he could inuent any balde reason to proue it agreeing to our doctrine. The sacramentaries he saith are carnal and grosse, because they say that Papistes receiue nothing but bare flesh, and not the flesh of Christe, which is vnited to the Deitie, and giueth life. But indeed the Papistes say as much, when they say that the flesh of Christ is receiued, where it giueth no life. As for those whome he calleth sacramentaries they wil not graunt, yt the Papistes (although they prate so grossely of flesh & bloud,) yet receiue any thing, but a wafer cake, & a draught of wine.
The fortieth Chapter endeth the exposition of this text, and so of the processe of the sixt of S. Iohn by Euthymius, and Lyra.Hesk.
Euthymius to end this long and tedious processe,Fukle. is cited, as before In. 6. Ioan. Verba quae, &c. The wordes which I speake vntounto you are spirite and life, they are spirituall and quickening. For we must not looke vponupon them simply, that is vnderstand them carnally. But imagine a certeine other thing, and to beholde them with inward eyes as mysteries, for this is spiritually to vnderstand. Euthymius affirmeth the same, that Chrysostome doeth Hom. 46. In Ioan. and almoste in the same wordes, neither can M. Hesk. drawe any thing out of thē to serue his humor, but that the sacramentes are mysteries, and therefore some other thing must be present, then is seene with the outward eye: which is true, so it be such a thing as may be seene onelyonly with the eyes of the mind, of which the authour speaketh. But the bodie of Christ, as Aug. saith, euen immortall and glorified, is stil visible. Ep. 85. Consentio. To wrangle about ye sentence of Lyra it were losse of time, who although he wil hauehave a real presence, yet he wil hauehave The flesh of Christ to be eaten in the sacrament after a spirituall maner, because the spirite by the power of God vnited to the flesh is refreshed. Wherevpon M. Hesk. reiecting the true spirituall manner of eating Christes fleshe in ye sacrament by faith, as hereticall, which he hath so often before allowed, as onelyonly profitable: setteth vp three other spirituall manners of Christes presence in the sacrament for three causes. First, because it is wrought by the spirite of God. Secondly, because, although it be verily present, it is not knowen by corporall sence, but by spirituall knowledge of faith. Thirdly, because our spirite by the power of God, is vnited to the fleshe: of these deuises he maketh Lyra the author, and he may bee well ynough. For such blinde teachers, while they wrangled about words, they became altogether vaine in their imaginations, and lost the true sence and meaning, both of the worde of God, and of the sacraments. The rayling stuffe wherewith he concludeth this Chapter, and this worthie expositiō continued in 36. Chapters, I passe ouer as vnworthie of any answere.