An excellent argument.

motion of bread, and also that high power of priests above all angels, I admit also, to avoid all brawling, but one reason I have unto which I cleave somewhat and it is this.

All that is between God and man in the Scripture is for man's necessity, and not for any need that God hath thereof. And other spiritual profit can none have by that faith in the sacrament, than to be taught thereby to believe in Christ our Saviour, and to do good to his neighbour, now is that belief and love had as well and rather better as is above proved, without such faith in with it; ergo, where the Scripture compelleth to no such belief, it is wickedness to make it a necessary article of our faith, and to slay them that cannot think that it ought to be believed.

Notwithstanding all these reasons and the damnable idolatry which the papists have committed with the sacrament, yet, whether they affirm the body and blood to be present with the bread and wine, or the bread and wine to be turned and transubstantiated into the body and blood; I am therewith content (for unity's sake) if they will there cease, and let him be there only to testify and confirm the testament or covenant made in Christ's blood and body, for which cause only Christ instituted the sacrament. But and if they will rage further with their blind reasons of their subtle sophistry and devilish idolatry, and say, where Christ's blood is, there is his body, and where his body is, there is his soul, and where his soul is, there is his Godhead and the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and there men ought to pray, and say, O Father which art present with thy Son Christ under bread and wine, oṛ in form of bread and wine. If (I say) they so rave, then as the old prophet for like idolatry, denieth God to dwell in the temple, or to have pleasure in sacrifice of blood of goats, sheep and calves; even so deny I the body of Christ to be any more in the sacrament, than God was in the golden calves which Jeroboam set up to be prayed to,

the one in Bethel, and the other in Dan, for though God be present everywhere, yet if heaven of heavens cannot compass him to make him a dwelling place (as the Scripture testifieth) and much less the temple that was at Jerusalem, how should he have a dwelling place in a little wafer or crumb of bread. God dwelleth not in the temple, neither did our fathers, which were of the true faith in the Old Testament, pray to God as present in the temple, but the name of God only was in the temple, (3 of the Kings viii.) 3Kings viii. and his law and covenants and wonderful deeds were therein written in signs and were there preached and testified continually of the true priests and prophets unto the people, the fathers of the true faith came thither.

Furthermore for the fervent love which they had towards the laws and covenants of God. For the which prophets, Solomon prayed so earnestly unto the Lord God, saying, Hear thou, O God, in heaven thy dwelling place, and do all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all nations of the earth may know thee and fear thy name, as do this people Israel, &c.

Read the third book of Kings the eighth chapter when 3Kings viii. God delighted only in the faith of the offerer, which believeth in God only for all mercy, taking the sacrifice for a sure token and earnest of the mercy of God, certified by that sign, that God loved them, and was at one with them for Christ's sake to come. As we should be certi-. fied by the sacrament of God with us for Christ's death that is past. And Christ taught us in our prayers to look up to heaven and say, Our Father which art in heaven, and he himself in all his prayers did lift up his eyes to heaven to his Father, and so did he when he instituted the sacrament and rehearsed the words of the covenant over bread and wine as it is written Matthew xxvi. Mark xiv. Luke xxii. 1 Cor. xi. in these words, Jesus took bread, &c.

Christ, though he affirm himself to be the Son of God and his father to be in him, yet he taught not his disciples to direct the prayer to the Father in him, but up to the

Matt. xxvi.
Mark xiv.
Luke xxii.

1 Cor. xi,

Father in heaven, neither lift he up his eyes or prayer to his Father in the sacrament, but to his Father in heaven. 1 know diverse and diverse men know me, which love me as I do them, yet if I should pray them when I meet them in the street openly, they would abhor me, but if I pray them where they be appointed to meet me secretly, they will hear me and accept my request. Even so though God's presence be everywhere, yet will he be prayed so, up to the place only where we shall see him, and where he would have us to long for to be.

Moreover if I grant you that the blood of Christ is in the cup, will it follow that his body is there also, neither when I grant that his body is in the bread, or under the form of bread, will it follow that his soul is there too. Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only, wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm that his blood is there present. And he did institute the wine to be the sacrament of his blood only. And haply it was red wine, the more lovely to represent it. Now as the wine in no similitude doth represent the body, so am I not bound nor ought to affirm that his body is there present.

Ye say that Christ is so mighty, that though he stood mortal before his disciples eyes, yet he was able to make the same body that same time to be in the sacrament immortal, and to be under every little piece of bread or of the sacrament, though it be no greater than a mote in the sun, and that as long, as great, and thick as he stood before them. If he were so mighty, why is he not as mighty to make his blood to be alone and his body alone? his blood, body and soul were each alone at his death, and while the body lay in the sepulchre.

Finally, Christ said, This is my blood that shall be shed; ergo, it is true now, This is my blood that was shed. Now the blood of Hales and the blood that is in many other places, men say is the blood that was shed, ergo, that blood is in the sacrament if any be, but I am not

bound to believe or ought to affirm, that the blood that is at Hales is animate with the soul of Christ, or that his body is there present.

Wherefore to avoid this endless brawling, which the devils no doubt hath stirred up to turn the eyes of our souls from the everlasting covenant made us in Christ's blood and body and to nossel us in idolatry, which is trust and confidence in false worshipping of God, and to quench first the faith to Christward and then the love due to our neighbour; therefore me thinketh that the party that hath professed the faith of Christ, and the love of his neighbour, ought of duty to bear each other, as long as the other opinion is not plain wicked through false idolatry, nor contrary to the salvation that is in Christ, nor against the open and manifest doctrine of Christ and his apostles, nor contrary to the general articles of the faith of the general church of Christ, which are confirmed with open Scripture. In which articles never a true church in any land dissenteth.

There be many texts of the Scripture, and therefore diversely expounded of holy doctors, and taken in contrary senses, when no text hath contrary senses indeed, or more than one single sense, and yet that hurteth not, neither are the holy doctors therefore heretics, as the exposition destroyeth not the faith in Christ's blood, nor is contrary to the open Scripture or general articles. No more doth it hurt to say that the body and blood are not in the sacrament. Neither doth it help to say they be there, but hurt exceedingly, if ye infer that the soul is there too, and that God must be there prayed to; when as our kingdom is not on the earth, even so we ought not to direct our prayers to any God in earth, but up where our kingdom is. And whither our Redeemer and Saviour is gone, and there sitteth on the right hand of his Father to pray for us, and to offer out prayers unto his father, and to make them for his sake acceptable; neither ought he that is bound under pain of

damnation to love his brother as Christ loved him, to hate, to persecute, and to slay his brother, for blind zeal to any opinion that neither letteth nor hindereth to salvation that is in Christ: as they which pray to God in the sacrament not only do, but also through that opinion, as they have lost love to their neighbours; even so have they lost the true faith in the covenant made in Christ's blood and body. Which covenant only is that which saveth. And to testify this was the sacrament instituted only.