Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 5
The fift Chapter proceedeth vponupon the same text, by S. Augustine, and Chrysostome.Hesk.
S. Augustine is alledged De Agricultura agri Dominici, a treatise of no account for the authoritie,Fulke. being falsely intituled to Augustine, which was the worke of a farre later writer. The wordes neuerthelesse are these: The table of thy spouse hath whole bread, and a holy cuppe, which bread although we hauehave seene broken and brused in his passion, yet he remained whole in that his indiuided vnity with his father. Of this bread and of this cup, our Lorde himselfe saide: The bread which I will giuegive is my fleshe for the life of the world, and the cuppe which I wil sanctifie is my bloud which shalbe shed for you vntounto remission of sinnes. This place is falsly & truncatly cited by M. Hesk. thus: Quem panē etsi fractum cōminutum que vidimus, integer tamen cum ipso suo patre manet in coelis. De quo pane dicit: panis, quem ego dabo, caro mea est pro mundi vita. Which he Englisheth thus: which bread although we hauehave seen brokē & brused on ye crosse: yet it abideth with yt his father whole in heauen: of the which bread he saith, &c. Wheras ye very wordes are quem panem etsi fractum comminunum que vidimus in passione, integer tamen mansit in illa sua indiuidua vnitate. De isto pane, & de isto calice dicebat ipse Dominus. Panis quem ego dedero caro … est pro saeculi vita, &c. Although this writer as it is manifest to any man that will reade his treatise, speaketh onelyonly of the vnitie of the Godhead of Christ, with his Father and the holy Ghoste, notwithstanding, the breaking of his body in his passion, which is represented in the sacrament: yet M. Heskins, vponupon his owne falsification, inferreth, that the body of Christ was and is in three sundrie places, on the Table or Altar, on the Crosse, and in heauen with his father. Yea, & he appealeth to the grammarian for the nature of a Relatiue, That the same bread is on the table, which was broken on the crosse, and that which was broken on the crosse, is it which is whole sitting in heauen. Which, how vaine a reason it is, when it is vrged of yt thing which hath two natures vnited in one person, as our Sauiour Christ hath, I appeale from all grammarians to al Catholike diuines: as in ye saying of Christ, no man hath ascended into heauen, but he that came downe from heauen, euen the sonne of man, which is in heauen, Ioan 9. Let M. Hesk. with ye grāmarian vrge the relatiue in this place, & he shal proue him selfe both an Anabaptist, & a Marcionist. For Christ cōcerning his humanitie came not down out of heauen, neither was he in heauen according to his humanity when he was on ye earth. But what stand we trifling about this testimonie? Seeing Augustine both in ye interpetation of this whole chapter is so copious, & vponupon the Psal. 98. in exposition of this text is so plain & direct against the carnal presens of Christs body in ye sacrament: Nisi quis &c. acceperunt illud stulte, carn…liter illud cogitauerunt, & puta…erūt quòd praecifurus esset Dominus particulas quas dā de corpore suo & daturus illis, &c. Ille autē instruxit eos, & ait illic, spiritus est qui vinificat, caro autē nihil predest. Verba quae loquatu… sū vobis, spiritus est & vita. Spiritualiter intelligite, quae loquatus sum. Non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis, & bibituri illum sanguinem, quem fusuri sunt, qui me crucifigent: sacramentum aliquod vobis commendati: spiritualiter intellectum viuificabit vos▪ …t si necesse est illud visibiliter celebrari, oportet tamen inuisibiliter intelligi. Except a man eate the flesh &c. They tooke it folishly, they imagined it carnally, and thought that our Lorde would hauehave cut off certaine peeces of his … and hauehave giuen them, &c. But he instructed them, and … vntounto them, It is the spirite that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The wordes which I hauehave spoken to you, are spirite and life. Vnderstand you spiritually that which I hauehave spoken. You shall not eate this body which you see, and drinke this bloud which they shall shed which shall crucifie me: I hauehave commended vntounto you a certaine sacrament or mysterie, which beeing spiritually vnderstoode, shall quicken you. Although it is necessarie that the same be celebrated visibly, yet must it be vnderstood inuisibly. Likewise In 6. Ioan. Tr. 27. Illi enim putabant eum erogaturum corpus suum, ille autem dixit se ascensurum in Coelum vti que integrum. Cum videatis filium hominis ascendentem vbi erat priùs: certè vel tunc videbitis quia non eo modo, quo putatis, erogat corpus suum: certè vel tunc intelligetis, quia gratia eius non consumitur morsibus. (He speaketh plainely if they will vnderstand him.) For they thought yt he would giuegive his body, but he said that he wold ascend whole into heauen. Whē you shal see the sonne of man ascend vp where he was before, surely then at the least you shall see, that hee giueth not his body after that maner that you think, surely then at the length you shall vnderstand, that his grace is not cōsumed with bitings. If these places were not most manifest, euen to the first eye yt looketh vponupon them, I might spend time in obseruing and noting out of them.
We come nowe to Chrysostome, who in his 45. Hom. in Ioan. vponupon those wordes, The bread which I will giuegive is my flesh, saith, The Iewes that time tooke no profite of those sayings, but we hauehave taken the profite of the benefite. Wherefore it is necessarily to be saide, howe woonderfull the mysteries be, and wherefore they were giuen, and what profite there is of them. And immediatly after, We are one body and members of his flesh and of his bones: and yet more plainely, And that we might be conuerted into that flesh, not onelyonly by louelove, but also in deede, it is brought to passe by the meat which he hath graunted vntounto vsus. He addeth also an other cause of the giuing of this mysterie: When hee would shewe foorth his louelove toward vsus, hee ioyned him selfe … his body, and brought him selfe into one with vsus, that the … might be vnited with the head. Finally he adioyneth a plaine place for the proclamer: I would be your brother, and for your sakes I tooke flesh and bloud with you, and by what things I was conioyned vntounto you, those things againe I hauehave giuen vntounto you. Here he triumpheth, as though the game were his, when in deede there is nothing for his purpose, but much against it: For no one word of all these sentences proueth, that the sixt of Iohn must be vnderstoode of the supper otherwise, then as it is a sacrament of that feeding and coniunction of vsus with Christ, which is therein described. And wheras he argueth vpō the last sentence, Christ gaue vsus that flesh by which he was ioined to vsus, but he was ioyned to vsus by very substantiall flesh, therfore he gaue vsus his very substantiall flesh. I confesse it to bee most true, for he gaue his very substantiall flesh to be crucified for vsus. If he vrge yt he gaue his flesh in yt sacrament, although Chrysostome saith not so in this place directly, yet the manner of the participation of his flesh must be such, as is the maner of his coniunction with vsus, but yt is spiritual, by which he is the head, and we the members, and yet vnited in one very substantiall flesh: therefore the manner of participation of his flesh in the sacrament, is also spirituall and not carnall. Maister Heskins reiecteth this participation to bee the fruition of the benefites of his body and bloud crucified, bycause that (saith hee) is common to all the sacraments, and not proper to this. But that the substaunce of all sacramentes is one, and the difference is in the manner of dispensation of them, wee hauehave shewed sufficiently in the first booke, which were tedious nowe to repeate. Wherefore we must now set downe what Chrysostome speaketh of the bloud of Christe. This bloud maketh that the kinges image doth flourish in vsus. This bloud doth neuer suffer the beautie and nobilitie of the soule, which it doth alwayes water and nourish, to fade or waxe faint. For bloud is not made of meate soudenly, but first it is a certaine other thing. But this bloud at the first doth water the soule, and indue it with a certaine great strength. This mysticall bloud driueth diuelles farre off, and allureth Angels and the Lorde of Angels vntounto vsus. For when the diuelles see the Lordes bloud in vsus, they are turned to flight, but the Angels runne foorth vntounto vsus. This bloud being shed did wash the whole world, whereof Paule to the Hebrues doth make a long proces. This bloud did purge the secrete places, and the most holy place of all. If then the figure of it had so great power in the temple of the Hebrues, and in Aegypt, beeing sprinkled vponupon the vpper postes of the doores, much more the veritie. This bloud did signifie the golden altar. Without this bloud the chiefe priest durst not goe into the inward secret places. This bloud made the priestes. This bloud in the figure purged sinnes, in which if it had so great force, if death so feared the shadowe, how much I pray thee will it feare the truth it selfe? This bloud is the health of our soules, with this bloud our soule is washed, with it she is decked, with it she is kindled. This bloud maketh our minde cleerer then the fire, more shining then golde. The effusion of this bloud made heauen open. Truely the mysteries of the Church are woonderfull, the holy treasure house is woonderfull. From Paradise a spring did runne, from thence sensible waters did flowe: from this table commeth out a spring, which powreth foorth spirituall flouds. Chrysostome in these wordes doth extoll the excellencie of the bloud of Christe shed vponupon the crosse, the mysterie whereof is celebrated and giuen to vsus in the sacrament, and therefore hee saith, it is Mysticus sanguis mysticall bloud which wee receiue in the sacrament, which word Mysticall, M. Heskins a common falsarie, hath left out in his translation, to deceiue the vnlearned reader. Hee laboureth much to proue that Chrysostome spake in this long sentence of yt sacrament, which is needlesse, for as he spake of the sacrament, so spake he of the passion of Christe, and of the sacrifices and ceremonies of the olde lawe, and all vnderunder one name of bloud. By which it is more then manifest, that hee vseth the name of bloud figuratiuely, and ambiguously, therefore nothing can bee gathered thereout, to fortifie M. Heskins bill of the naturall bloud of Christ to be in the challice. The honourable titles of the sacrament, proue no transubstantiation nor carnal presence in this sacramēt more then in the other.
The same Chrysostome vponupon Cap. 9. ad Heb. Hom. 16. sheweth howe the bloud of Christ that purged the old sacrifices; is the same which is giuen vsus in the sacrament of the new testament. Non enim corporalis erat mundatio, sed spiritualis, & sanguis spiritualis, Quomodo hoc? Noune ex corpore manauis? Ex corpore quidem, sed a spiritu sancto. Hoc vos sanguine non Moses, sed Christus aspersit, per verbum quod dictum est, Hic est sanguis noui testamenti, in remissionem peccarorum. For that was no corporall cleansing but spirituall, and it was spirituall bloud. Howe so? Did it not flowe out of his body? It did in deede flowe out of his body, but from the holy spirit. Not Moses but Christe did sprinkle you with this bloud, by that worde which was spoken: This is the bloud of the newe testament for the remission of sinnes. Thus let Chrysostome expound him selfe, touching the mysticall or spirituall bloud of Christe, which both was offered in the old sacrifices, and nowe feedeth vsus in the sacrament: if it were in the olde sacrifices naturally present, then is it so nowe, if the vertue onelyonly was effectuall, so is it also to vsus, and no neede of transubstantiation or carnall presence.