Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 2 · Part 54
Hesk.The foure & fiftieth Chapter testifyeth the vnderstanding of the same words by Isychius, & S. Augustine.
Fulke.Isychius is alledged in Leuit. lib. 6. Cap. 2…. vponupon this text. He that eateth of the holie things vnwittingly, shall put the fifth parte thereunto, and giuegive vntounto the Priest the hallowed thing. Sancta sanctorum, &c. The most holie things properly are the mysteries of Christ, because it is his bodie, of whome Gabriell said vntounto the virgin: The holy ghost shall come vpō thee, and the power of the moste highest shall ouershadowe thee, therefore that holy one that shalbe borne of thee, shalbe called the sonne of God. And Esay also: The Lord is holie, & dwelleth in the heightes, that is to saye, in the bosome of his father. For from this sacrifice he hath forbidden, not onelyonly strangers and soiourners & hyred seruaunts, but hee commaunded also, not to receiue it by ignorance. And he taketh it by ignorance, which knoweth not the vertue and dignitie thereof, which knoweth not that this bodie and bloud is according to the trueth, but receiueth the mysteries, and knoweth not the vertue of the mysteries. VntoUnto whome Salomon sayth, or rather the spirite which is in him: When thou sittest to eat with a Prince, attende diligently, what things are set before thee. He also compelling openly and constraining him that is ignorant to adde a fifth parte. For this fifth parte being added, maketh vsus to vnderstande the diuine mysteries, intelligibly. Nowe, what the fifth parte is, the wordes of the Law giuer may teache thee. For he sayth: he shall add a fifth parte, with that he hath eaten. And howe can a man adde a fifth parte of that which he hath alreadie eaten and consumed? For he biddeth not another thing, or from any other where. But a fifth parte to be added of it, or with it, or as the 70. interprete vponupon it. Then the fifth parte of it, vponupon it, is the worde which was vttered by Christ him selfe vponupon the Lordes mysterie. For that being added, deliuereth and remoueth vsus from ignorance, as to thinke any thing carnall or earthly of those holie things, but decreeth, that those thinges shoulde bee taken diuinely & spiritually, which is properly called the fifth part, for the diuine spirite which is in vsus, and the worde which he deliuered, doth sett in order the senses that are in vsus, and doth not onelyonly bring foorth our taste vntounto mysterie, but also our hearing & sight and touching & smelling, so that of these things which are verie high, we do suspect, nothing that is neare to lesse reason or weake vnderstanding.
This place M. Hesk. noteth, that the mysteries are called a most holy thing, and a sacrifice. We confesse it is a most holy thing, & a sacrifice of thanksgiuing, for so ye fathers meant, and not a propitiatorie sacrifice. Moreouer he noteth, that it is called the verie bodie and bloud in verie deede. Although the wordes of the author sounde not so roundly, yet let that be graunted also, what is then the conclusion? Marie then, hauehave ye a plaine place for the proclaimer, & issue ioyned thereupon, that no one writer of like auncientie, sayth, it is not the verie bodie. For thè plainesse of the place, I wish always, that the author may be his own expositor. First, where he sayth, that the fifth part added, maketh vsus to vnderstand the mysteries intelligibly (that is as he vseth the terme) spiritually & mystically, although M. Hesk. translate intelligibiliter easily.
Secondly, where he sayth, wee must thinke nothing carnally or earthly of the holy things, and that the worde of God decreeth, that they should be taken diuinely and spiritually. As for the issue it was ioyned & tryed in the one and twentieth Chapter of the first booke. But wee must heare what Hesychius sayth further. Quicunque ergo sanctificata &c. Whosoeuer therfore shal eat of the things sanctified by ignorance, not knowing their vertue (at we hauehave saide) shall adde a fifth parte of it vponupon it, and giuegive it to the Priest into the sanctuarie. For it behoueth the sanctification of the mysticall sacrifice, and the translation or commutation from thinges sensible to things intelligible, to be giuen to Christ, which is the true Priest, that is, to graunt and impute to him the miracle of them, because that by his power and the worde vttered by him, those things that are seene, are as surely sanctified, as they exceede all sense of the flesh. Out of these words M. Hesk. would proue transubstantiation, because he saith, there is a translation or cō mutation from things sensible to intelligible, yt is, from bread, which is perceiued by ye senses, to ye body of Christ, which in this manner is not perceiued by senses. But M. Hesk. must proue the bodie of Christe to bee no sensible thing, but a thing which may be perceiued by vnderstanding only, or else his exposition wil not stand, for here is a diuision & exposition of things sensible & intelligible, which is a plaine ouerthrow of popish transubstantiatiō, & carnall presence, for yt wherunto the things sensible are changed, is not a sensible thing, as the naturall bodie of Christ is, but they are changed into things intelligible▪ yt is, which may only by vnderstanding be conceiued, & so is the spiritual feeding of our soules by faith, with ye verie body & bloud of Christ. Next Augustin is cited in Ps. 33 a place which hath ben cited & answered more then once alreadie. Et ferebatur, &c. And he was carried in his own bāds. Brethren how could this be true in a man? &c. I will remit the reader to the 10. Chap. of this second book, where it is answered by Aug. him self, & in the same exposition. Christ caried himself, saith Aug. in his hands, quodam modo, after a certaine manner, but not simply. Maister Hesk. iangling of an onelyonly figure, hath bene often reproued: wee make not the sacrament such an onelyonly figure, as Dauid might carrie in his handes of him selfe, for Dauid could make no sacrament of him selfe, but such a figure, as is a diuine and heauenly worke, to giuegive in deede, that it representeth in signe. An other place of Augustine, is cyted De Trin. lib. 3. cap. 4. but truncately (as he termeth it) for he neither alledgeth the heade nor the feete, by which the scope of Augustines wordes might be perceiued. But the whole sentence is this. Si ergo Apostolus Paulus, &c. If therefore the Apostle Paule, although hee did yet carrie the burthen of his body, which is corrupted and presseth downe the soule, although he did as yet see but in part, and in a darke speach, desiring to be dissolued and to bee with Christ, & groning in himself for the adoption, wayting for the redēption of his body, Could neuerthelesse preach our Lord Iesus Christ by signifying, otherwise by his tong, otherwise by his Epistle, otherwise by the sacrament of his body & bloud for neither his tong, nor the parchments, nor the ynke nor the signifying sounds vttered with his tong, nor the signes of the letters written in skinnes, do we call the body and bloud of Christ, but only that which being taken of the fruits of the earth, & being consecrated with mysticall prayer, we do rightly receiue vntounto spiritual health, in remembrance of our Lords suffring for vsus: which when it is brought by the hands of mē, to that visible forme, it is not sanctified that it shuld be so great a sacramēt, but by the spirit of god working inuisibly: whē God worketh al these things which in that work are done by corporall motions, mouing first the inuisible parts of his ministers, either the soules of men, or of secret spirits yt are subiectes seruing him: what maruel is it, if also in the creature of heauen & earth, the sea, & al the ayre, God maketh what he wil both sensible and inuisible things, to set forth him selfe in them, as he him selfe knoweth it shuld be: his owne substaunce as it is not appearing, which is altogether vnchangeable, and more inwardly and secretly, higher then all the spirites which he hath created.
He rayleth vponupon Oecolampadius, for leauing out of S. Augustine that which maketh against him, as though hee him selfe hath not an hundreth times done so as he chargeth him. Although it is not to be thought, that Oecolampadius vsed any fraud, when he tooke as much as serued his purpose for which he alledged it, and nothing folowed, that was contrarie to it, for all M. Heskins lowde crying out. For Paule preached Christe by signifying in the sacrament, which is called the body & bloud of Christ, bicause it is a sacrament thereof, whereas his tong, nor his parchment, nor ynke, nor sound of words, nor figures of letters were no sacraments, and yet he preached the same Christ by signifying, in speaking, writing, and ministring the sacrament. But besides this, M. Heskins would hauehave vsus note two things. That the bread is sanctified and made a great sacrament: and that it is sanctified and made by the inuisible worke of the holy Ghost. The first (he saith) is against Oecolampadius & Cranmer, that say, the creatures receiue no sanctification, but the soules of men. They meane, that holinesse is not included in the creatures, but consisteth in the whole action, and so Augustine addeth to the consecration the due receiuing in remembrance of Christes death, without which the bread is no sacrament. But M. Heskins would learne what he meaneth by calling it a great sacrament, and what the worke of the holy Ghost is in it? If it please him to vnderstand, the holy Ghost working inuisibly, maketh it a greate mysterie of our saluation, assuring our consciences, that we are fed spiritually with the body and bloud of Christ, as our bodies are corporally with bread and wine. As for S. Iames his Masse, and other such ma…king disguisings, I will not vouchsafe to aunswere, being meere forgeries and counterfetings.
But howe S. Augustine did expound these wordes, M. Heskins if he durst, might hauehave cyted this place, Contra Adimantum. Nam ex eo quod scriptum est sanguinem pecoris animam eius esse, pręter id quod supra dixi, non ad me pertinere quid agatur de pecoris anima, possum etiam interpretari praeceptum illud in signo esse positum: non enim Dominus dubitanit dicere: hoc est corpus meum, cum signum daret corporis sui. For of that which is written, that the bloud of a beast is the life thereof, beside that which I said before, that it pertaineth not to me what becommeth of the life of a beast, I may interprete that commandement to be giuen in a signe: for our Lord doubted not to say: this is my body, when he gaue the signe of his body. This place is plaine, and will not suffer M. Heskins glose, that the accidents are called a signe of his body, for then it is nothing like to the text, which he compareth to this: bloud is the life of the beast. Let this place expound Augustine, when so euer he nameth the sacrament the body of Christ.