wine, say they, cannot be Christ's natural body, therefore the bread and wine, are changed, turned, altered and transubstantiated into the very body and blood of Christ. And they of this opinion have busied themselves in seeking subtilties and similitudes, to prove how the very body and blood might be there under the similitude of bread and wine only, the very bread and wine being thus transubstantiated. And these men have been so occupied in slaying all that will not captive their wits to believe them, that they never taught nor understood, that the sacrament is an absolution to all that thereby believe in the body and blood of Christ.

tion of them of the

second opi

nion above

mentioned.

The second part grant with the first, that the words A declaracompel us to believe that the things shewed in the sacrament, are the very body and blood of Christ. But where But where the first say bread and wine cannot be the very body and blood of Christ, there they vary and dissent from them, affirming that bread and wine may, and also is, Christ's body really, and very blood of Christ; and say, that it is as true to say that bread is Christ's body, and that wine is his blood, as it is true to say Christ being a very man is also very God. And they say, As the Godhead and manhood in Christ, are in such manner coupled together, that man is very God, and God very man; even so the very body and the bread are so coupled, that it is as true to say that bread is the body of Christ, and the blood so annexed there with the wine, that it is even as true to say that the wine is Christ's blood.

The first though they have slain so many, in and for the defence of their opinion, yet they are ready to receive the second sort to fellowship, not greatly striving with them or abhorring the presence of bread and wine with the very body and blood so that they yet by that means may keep him there still, and hope to sell him as dear as before, and also some to buy him, and not to minish the price. The third sort affirm, that the words meant no more but only that we believe by the things that are there

A declara

tion of them

of the third

opinion above men-. tioned.

shewed, that Christ's body was broken and his blood shed for our sins, if we will forsake our sins and turn to God to keep his law. And they say that these sayings, This is my body and This is my blood, shewing bread and wine are true, as Christ meant them, and as the people of that country (to whom Christ spake) were accustomed to understand such words, and as the Scripture useth in a thousand places to speak. As when one of us saith, I have drunk a cup of good wine, that saying is true as the man meant; that he drank wine only, and not the cup; which words haply in some other nation's ears, would sound that he drank the cup. And as when we say of a child, This is such a man's very face; the words are true, as the manner of our land is to understand them, that the face of the one is very like the other. And as when we say he gave me his faith and his truth in my hand, the words are true as we understand them, that he struck hands with me, or gave earnest in sign or token that he would bide by his promise, for the faith of a man doth alway rest in his soul, and cannot be given out though we give signs and tokens of them. Even so (say they) we have a thousand ensamples in the Scripture, where signs are named with the names of things signified by them. As Jacob called Gen. xxxii. the place where he saw the Lord face to face, Pheniel,

that is, God's face, when he saw the Lord face to face. Now it is true to say of that field, that it is God's face, though it be not his very face. The same field was so called to signify that Jacob there saw God face to face.

The chief hold and principal anchor that the two first have, is these words, This is my body: This is my blood. Unto these the third answereth as is above said; other texts they allege for themselves, which not only do not strength their cause, but rather make it worse. As in the sixth of John which they draw and wrest to the carnal Papists are and fleshly eating of Christ's body in the mouth, when it only meaneth of this eating by faith. For when Christ Scriptures. said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and

John vi.

the wrest.

ers of the

drink his blood ye have no life in you. This cannot be understood of the sacrament. For Abraham had life and all the old holy fathers, Christ's mother, Elizabeth, Zacharias, John Baptist, Simeon, Ann, and all the apostles, had life already by faith in Christ; of which not one had eaten his flesh and drunken his blood with their bodily mouths, but truth it is, that the righteous liveth by his faith; ergo, to believe and trust in Christ's blood is the eating that there was meant, as the text well proveth. If they say we grant that life cometh by faith, but we all that believe must be baptized to keep the law and to keep the covenant in mind; even so all that liveth by faith must receive the sacrament. I answer: The sacrament is confirmation to weak consciences, and in no wise to be confirmadespised; howbeit many have lived by faith in the wilderness, which in twenty, thirty or forty years have not re- sciences. ceived the sacrament. Notwithstanding this oration is nothing to the purpose. For Christ spake to the blind and unbelieving Jews, testifying to them that they could have no life, except they should first eat his flesh, and drink his blood; ergo, This eating and drinking is meant only of that thing, that first bringeth life into the soul, and that is faith by your own confession. And therefore must it be understood of faith only, and not of the sacrament.

a

The sacra ments are

tions to weak con

Faith increaseth by the worthy receiving of

the sacra

ments.

xxviii.

And Matthew the last; I am with you always, even unto Matt. the end of the world; which may well be understood, and so was it of old doctors that by his spiritual being with us by faith, and in his Spirit; and so may that text of Matthew eighteen be understood, Where two or three are ga- Matt. xviii. thered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. There is many times two or three good men that

meet together in Christ's name where the sacrament is not.

And Paul, (Eph. iii.) boweth his knees for the Ephesians Eph. iii. to God, That he would give them his riches, to be strengthened with his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. Where the heart then believeth in

The old doctors vary in

nion of the sacrament.

Christ, there dwelleth Christ in the heart; though there be no bread in the heart, neither yet in the maw.

The two first parties taking the old doctors to be on their side. I answer, many of the old doctors speak so their opi- mystically that they seem sometimes to affirm plainly that it is but bread and wine only concerning the substance. And that it is a figure of the body and blood of Christ only, and sometimes that is the very body and blood, therefore it were needless to wade any further herein.

An answer to them of the second opinion,

And unto them of the second opinion that the bread is his very body, I answer, ye must remember that the old doctors, as earnestly call it a sacrifice as they do Christ's body. But that ye deny: And say with the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he was but once sacrificed for altogether, when he offered and sacrificed himself to the Father for our sins, and can now no more be sacrificed. Christ dieth no more now, and therefore is no more sacrificed. sacrificed is Neither do we properly offer him to God. But he in his mortal flesh offered himself for us to God the Father, and purchased therewith a general pardon for ever.

Christ once

a sacrifice

for ever.

The doc

trine of the papists.

Papists be aggrieved with such as consent not to their gloss opinion.

Signs commonly call ed by the name of

things sig

nified thereby.

And now doth God the Father proffer him and giveth him to us. And the priests in God's stead proffer him and give him unto the people for a remission and absolution of their sins daily, if they, by the moving and stiring of the sacrament believe in the body and blood of Christ.

Wherefore ye ought of no right to be angry with them of the third opinion, though they deny the doctors, where they seem to say that the sacrament is the very body of Christ. As they be not angry with you, when ye deny them, where they as earnestly affirm that it is a sacrifice. Nevertheless they answer, that doctors call it a sacrifice only because it is the memorial, the earnest and seal of that everlasting sacrifice offered once for all. And even so say they that the doctors called the sacrament the body and blood of Christ after the same manner only, because it is the memorial, the earnest and seal of body and

blood, as the use of Scripture is to call signs by the names of things signified thereby.

And unto them of the first opinion, I answer, with the same reason, that it is impossible that the sacrament should be a very sacrifice. For neither the sacrifices of the old law which prophesied the sacrificing of Christ, neither yet our redemption was fulfilled at night. For if the Scriptures and prophecies were then fulfilled, and we then redeemed, Christ died on the morrow in vain, and false are the apostles and evangelists that preach his body breaking, and blood-shedding, under Pontius Pilate, by the persecution of Caiaphas and Annas, to be our redemption.

Moreover, for all the breaking and dividing of the sacrament of his body among his apostles, his body abode still alive; and for all the pouring out of the sacrament of his blood of the pot into the cup, and out of the cup into the mouths and bellies of his disciples, he bled as fresh on the morrow, as though he had bled then nothing at all.

He was verily much more easily sacrificed that night in the breaking and dividing of the bread, and pouring out of wine, than he was on the morrow. The Sacrament was that night no doubt but a description of his passion to come. And it is now a memorial of his passion past. He instituted the manner of the sacrament then, and taught his disciples also, that they after understood when he was risen again, and not then, as they never had capacity to understand him when he spake of his death. For they then imagined carnally of Christ (as the Jews yet do) that Christ should never die as he did not concerning his Godhead, but should live ever bodily, as he now doth concerning his resurrection.

Wherefore seeing that all the doctors with one accord, call the sacrament so earnestly a sacrifice, they cannot otherwise understand them that they so say, after the use of the Scripture only, but because it is the memorial of

Note this

worthy and true argulowing.

ment fol

All the do one accord

All the doctors with

call the sa

crament a sacrifice.