Serm. 119. that is not seen." It is best seen with our faith that is least seen with our body; for our faith is sharper than our eye. And in like sense St Augustine saith: Non August. vides, quomodo rubeat pars Christi? Interroga oculos fidei. Si crucem vides, attende De Tempore. et cruorem. Si vides quod pendet, attende quod fudit": "Seest thou not how Christ's portion is red with blood? Ask the eyes of thy faith. If thou see the cross, behold also the blood. If thou see that hangeth, behold also that iss shed." Of these eyes and of this sight St Ambrose speaketh; unto which is required neither circumstance of place, nor any manner corporal or fleshly presence. In this sense St Ambrose writeth unto certain holy virgins: Vestras Ambros, de mentes confidenter altaria dixerim, in quibus quotidie pro redemptione corporis Christus offertur: "I may boldly call your minds altars; for that in them Christ is daily offered for the redemption of the body." Hereof M. Harding reasoneth thus: Christ is offered in the earth; Ergo, Christ's body is at one time in many places. If this argument were good, then would this argument likewise be good: The Lamb, that is, Christ, was offered from the beginning of the world; Ergo, Christ's body was really in sundry places before it was born in the world. M. Harding might better have reasoned thus, and have concluded the contrary: Christ is not now really and fleshly offered in the earth; Ergo, Christ's body is not really and fleshly present in many places. Virg. Lib. ii. Rev. v. X. Petr. Diac. But M. Harding saith: "The sacrifice of the church is not thanksgiving, as our new masters teach us." Certainly our sacrifice is the very body of Christ, and that for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech, evermore standing Heb. vi. vii. in God's presence, and evermore obtaining pardon for us; not offered up by Rom. viii. us, but offering us up unto God the Father. For the same it is our part to offer unto God our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. And this is the doctrine, not only of them whom it liketh M. Harding to call new masters, but also of the oldest and most catholic doctors of the church. And, to allege one instead of many, St Augustine hereof writeth thus: In illis...carnalibus August, ad victimis figuratio fuit carnis,...quam [Christus]...fuerat oblaturus....In isto autem cap. XIX. sacrificio [est] gratiarum actio, et commemoratio carnis,...quam pro nobis obtulit 10: "In those fleshly sacrifices (of the Jews) there was a figure of the flesh that Christ afterward would offer; but in this sacrifice of the church there is thanksgiving, and a remembrance of that flesh which Christ hath already offered for us.' If M. Harding will happily refuse St Augustine, as mistrusted for one of these new masters, yet he may not well11 refuse his own mass-book. There he himself even at his mass is taught to say: [Qui] tibi offerimus...hoc sacrificium laudis 12: "We that do offer up to thee this sacrifice of praise." Wherefore, unless M. Harding will leave his mass, he himself must needs pass in the number of these new masters. Joh. Tract. But to conclude, who can better expound St Ambrose's meaning than St Augustine, that was sometime his scholar? He sheweth us by how many ways we may have Christ present among us. His words be these: Habes Christum August. in et in præsenti, et in futuro: in præsenti per fidem; in præsenti per signum; in 50. præsenti per baptismatis sacramentum; in præsenti per altaris cibum et potum 13 : "Thou hast Christ both in the time present, and also in the time to come. In the time present thou hast Christ by faith; in the time present by his token; in the time present by the sacrament of baptism; in the time present by the meat and drink of the altar." The like hereof is written also by Origen, [ August. Op. Par. 1679-1700. Serm. ccxiii, 8. Tom. V. col. 942.] [ It, 1565, 1609.] [ Ambros. Op. De Virgin. Lib. 11. cap. ii. 18. Tom. II. col. 166; where quarum mentes altaria confidenter dixerim, and Christus immolatur.] [10 Fulgent. Op. Par. 1623. Lib. de Fid, ad Petr. Diac. col. 356; where atque commemoratio est.] [12 Missal. ad Us. ac Consuet. Sar. Par. 1527. [13 August. Op. In Johan. Evang. cap. xii. Tractat. 1. 12. Tom. III. Pars 11. col. 633.] Hom. 1. Tract. 33. Tract. and that in like order and form of words; saving that he addeth, By the Orig. in Div. preaching of the apostles; and instead of signum hath these words : Per Orig. in Matt. gloriosum crucis signaculum'. Verily the same Origen saith: Si...virtus Jesu una sit cum eis qui congregantur in nomine ejus, non peregrinatur a suis, sed semper præsto est eis2: "If the power of Jesus be together with them that be assembled in his name, he is not away from his own, but is still present with Orig. eodem them." And again he saith: Nihil [est] contrarium...ipsum Jesum secundum quendam...intellectum esse ubique; secundum alium [intellectum].....peregrinari3: "It is no inconvenience nor contrariety, that Christ in one sense be every where, and in another sense be a stranger and absent from us.” Thus many ways, saith St Augustine and Origen, we have Christ present amongst us; and even thus, saith St Ambrose, "Christ is offered in the earth." Whereupon we may conclude thus: We have Christ in faith, in the sign and in the sacrament of baptism, without real or fleshly presence; therefore, we have him likewise without any such real presence in the sacrament of his body. Chrysostom expoundeth calleth it a tion, a figure, a remembrance; required no corporal pre sence. M. HARDING. THE EIGHTH DIVISION. We find in Chrysostom a most manifest place for the being of Christ's body himself. He in many places at once; so as, though he be offered in many places, yet is he but commemora- one Christ, not many Christs. His words be these: Unum est hoc In Epist. ad sacrificium: alioquin hac ratione, quoniam multis in locis offertur, multi Heb. Hơm. 17. whereunto is Christi sunt? Nequaquam; sed unus ubique est Christus, et hic plenus existens, et illic plenus. Unum corpus. Sicut enim qui ubique offertur, unum corpus est, et non multa corpora; ita etiam et unum sacrificium1: "This sacrifice is one; else by this reason, sith it is offered in many places, be there many Christs? Not so; but there is but one Christ every where, being here both fully, and there fully also; one body. For as he that is offered every where is but one body, and not many bodies, so likewise it is but one sacrifice." By this place of Chrysostom we see what hath been the faith of the old fathers touching this article; even the same which the catholic church professeth at these days, that one Christ is offered in many places, so as he be fully and perfectly here, and fully and perfectly there. And thus we perceive what force their arguments have in the judgment of the learned fathers, by which they take away from Christ power to make his Bernard lived body present in many places at once. St Bernard uttereth the faith of the church Anno 1120. in his time, agreeable with this, in these words: Sed unde hoc nobis, sermo in piissime Domine, ut nos vermiculi reptantes, &c.7: "From whence cometh after Christ 8 Cina Domini, this, most loving Lord, that we silly worms, creeping on the face of the earth, yea, we that are but dust and ashes, be admitted to have thee present in our hands, and before our eyes, which all and whole sittest at the right hand of thy Father, which also art present all in one moment of time from the east to the west, from the north to the south; one in many, the same in divers places; from whence, I say, cometh this? Soothly, not of our duty or desert, but of thy good-will, and of the good pleasure of thy sweetness; for thou hast prepared in thy sweetness for the poor one, O God." In the same sermon, exhorting the church to rejoice of the presence of Christ, he saith: In terra sponsum habes in sacramento, in cœlis habitura es sine velamento: et hic et ibi veritas; sed hic palliata, ibi manifestata 10: "In the earth thou hast thy spouse in the sacrament, in heaven [ Orig. Op. Lat. Basil. 1545. In Divers. Hom. i. [2 Id. Op. Par. 1733-59. In Matt. Comm. Ser. 65. [Chrysost. Op. Par. 1718-38. In Epist. ad [ Perfitely, 1565, and H. A. 1564.] [ Sed, &c. piissime Jesu, ut &c. super faciem terræ; nos, inquam, qui pulvis et cinis sumus, te præsentem habere mereamur præ manibus, præ ocu lis, qui totus et integer sedes ad dexteram Patris? [8 Seely, 1565, and H. A. 1564.] [10 Id. ibid. 7. col. 671; where manifesta.] thou shalt have him without veil or covering: both here and there11 is the truth (of Christ his presence); but here covered, there opened." THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. whole here, and whole there. Epist. ad 17. This place is uttered by St Ambrose, Primasius, Remigius, Haimo, Sedulius, in like manner and form of words, and hath been often alleged and often answered. If it had pleased M. Harding to suffer St Chrysostom to tell out his own tale, the place had been plain of itself. For thus he saith: Offerimus Chrysost. in quidem, sed recordationem facientes mortis ejus. Hoc sacrificium exemplar illius Heb. Hom. est. Hoc, quod nos facimus, in commemorationem fit ejus, quod factum est. Christus enim ait, Hoc facite in meam commemorationem....Id ipsum semper offerimus: magis autem sacrificii recordationem operamur 12: "We offer indeed, but we do it in remembrance of his death. This sacrifice is an exemplar or figure of that sacrifice. The thing that we do is done in remembrance of that thing that was done before. For Christ saith, 'Do this in my remembrance.' We offer up the same thing; nay, rather we work the remembrance of a sacrifice." By thus many sundry ways Chrysostom opened his own meaning. Yet all this M. Harding thought best to dissemble closely, and to pass it in silence. Certainly, the commemoration or figure or remembrance of Christ's death maketh small proof for corporal or fleshly presence. True it is that whole Christ is fully at every communion, as Chrysostom saith: not that he is there in fleshly or bodily presence; for so St Chrysostom saith not; but for that by his grace and holy Spirit he worketh wholly and effectually in the hearts of the faithful. Psal. xi. Joh. Tract. St Augustine and other learned fathers have used the like manner of speech, and in the same seem fully to express Chrysostom's mind. St Augustine writeth thus: Veritas una est, qua illustrantur animæ sanctæ: sed quoniam multæ sunt August, in animæ, in ipsis multæ veritates dici possunt; sicut ab una facie multæ in speculis imagines apparent 13: "There is but one truth wherewith the blessed souls are lightened. But, forasmuch as the souls be many, it may be said, that in the same are many truths; as sundry images appear in sundry glasses, notwithstanding the face be one." Again, St Augustine saith: Sapientia Dei, Ver- August, in bum Dei, Dominus Jesus Christus ubique præsens est: quia ubique est veritas, 35. ubique est sapientia. Intelligit quis in oriente justitiam: intelligit quis in occidente justitiam. Nunquid alia est justitia, quam ille intelligit, alia, quam iste14? "The Wisdom of God, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is every where present; for the truth is every where, and wisdom is every where. One man understandeth righteousness in the east, another understandeth righteousness in the west; and doth the one of them understand one righteousness, and the other another?" So likewise, and somewhat near to the manner of Chrysostom's speech, Origen speaketh: Et hodie in hac congregatione Dominus loquitur;. Orig. in Luc. et non solum in hac, sed etiam in alio cœtu, et in toto orbe docet Jesus, quærens organa, per quæ doceat 15: "And even this day, in this congregation, the Lord speaketh; and not only in this, but also in another company, and in the whole world, Jesus teacheth, seeking instruments by which he may teach." In this sort is Christ present at the holy ministration, because his truth, his wisdom, his righteousness, his word is there present, as the face is present in the glass; not by any bodily or fleshly presence. In this manner St Ambrose writeth: Cœlum aspice: Jesus illic est. Terram intuere: Jesus adest....Si ascenderis in cœlum, Ambros. in Jesus illic est: si descenderis ad infernum, adest. Hodie, cum loquor, mecum est: cap. i. intra hunc punctum, intra hoc momentum. Et si in Armenia nunc loquatur Christus16, Jesus adest. Nemo enim dicit Dominum Jesum, nisi in Spiritu sancto 17: "Look up into the heaven: there is Jesus. Behold the earth: Jesus is there. Hom. 32. Luc. Lib. ii. If thou mount up into heaven, there is Jesus: if thou go down into hell, Jesus Arguis present. Even now while I speak, Jesus is with me, even at this hour, even at taken of this minute. And if any christian man speak now in Armenia, so far hence Jesus Christ's is with him. 'For no man saith, The Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Ghost'." ments huma nity. Chrysost. ad And such kind of presence at one time in sundry places is avouched by St Chrysostom, not only of Christ's body, which is immortal and glorious, but also of other godly mortal man. any For thus he writeth: Vidistis caritatis excellentiam, quemadmodum unum hominem inexpugnabilem reddat, et multiplicet; et quemadmodum unus in multis locis esse possit; idem et in Perside, et Roma. Nam quod natura non potest, potest caritas. Nam ejus hoc quidem hic erit, hoc autem illic. Quin potius integer hic, et integer illic. Itaque si mille habeas amicos, vel duo millia, perpende quorsum possit potentia pervenire. Vides quemadmodum caritas res sit augmentativa. Hoc enim est mirabile, quod unum facit millecuplum1: "Thou hast seen the excellent working of charity, how it fortifieth a man, as it were in a castle, and multiplieth him, and, being one man, maketh him many. Thou hast seen how one man may be in many places; one man in Persia, and the same man in Rome. For charity can do that nature cannot do. Of one man one portion shall be here, and another portion there. Nay rather, he shall be whole here, and whole there. Therefore, if one man have a thousand friends, or two thousand, consider, how far he may reach by his 2 power. Thou seest how that charity is a matter of increase. And this is a wonder, it maketh one man to be a thousand-fold more than he is, and as if he were a thousand men." The same answer may serve also for St Bernard; howbeit his authority in this case is not great, as living in the very time of corruption, at the least eleven hundred years after Christ, and so five hundred years at the least without the compass of the first six hundred years. M. HARDING. THE NINTH DIVISION. Thus all these fathers, as likewise the rest, confess as it were with one mouth, that Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father, and yet is here present in the sacrament the same time; that he is in heaven and in earth at once, in many and divers places, one, and the same is every where offered, the one true sacrifice of the church. And this article is by them so clearly and plainly uttered, that The hundred (151) figures, significations, tropes, and metaphors, can find no appearance ors untruth. colour at all. Whereby the new masters' reasons seem very peevish: Christ is ascended; ergo, he is not in the sacrament. Christ is in heaven sitting at the and Chryso right hand of his Father; ergo, he is not in earth. Christ's body is of nature of figures, as finite; ergo, it is contained in a place circumscriptively; ergo, it is not in many places. and fifty-first For these very words of Ambrose stom are full shall appear. THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. M. Harding needeth no great study to answer our arguments. It is sufficient for him to pronounce by authority, "these new masters' arguments be all peevish.” Verily, it appeareth by the whole substance and course of M. Harding's book, that he hath some good pretty skill in peevish arguments; otherwise he could not have them and use them in such plenty. But the old learned fathers oftentimes and commonly used such arguments of Christ's humanity; and yet were they never reproved as peevish for the same, but only by heretics. St Augustine saith: De Consecr. Donec seculum finiatur, sursum est Dominus; sed tamen etiam hic nobiscum est veriPrima. tas Domini. Corpus enim, ... in quo resurrexit, [in] uno loco esse oportet: “Until Dist. ii. [ Vidisti caritatis excellentiam, qualiter unum inexpugnabilem, &c. qualiter unus et multis in locis esse potest, idem, &c.: et quod, &c. mille habeat, &c. perpende quo rursum potentia perveniet. Vides quomodo caritas sit res, &c. facit millenum.-Chrysost. Op. Lat. Basil. 1547. Ad Pop. Ant. Hom. li. Tom. V. col. 350.] [2 This, 1565.] [ H. A. 1564, omits yet.] [That the same, H. A. 1564.] [ Nor, 1565, 1609, and H. A. 1564.] [ August. in Corp. Jur. Canon. Lugd. 1624. Decret. Gratian. Decr. Tert. Pars, De Consecr. Dist. ii. can. 44. col. 1935; where hic etiam, and veritas Dominus.] ments nity. Cyril. in Joh. iii. contr. Faust. xx. cap. xi. the world be ended, the Lord is above; yet notwithstanding, even here is the Argutruth of the Lord. For the body wherein he rose again must needs be in one place." St Cyrillus saith: Christus non poterat in carne versari cum apostolis, taken of postquam ascendisset ad Patrem": "Christ could not be conversant with his Christ's apostles in his flesh, after that he had ascended unto his Father." So St Augus- humatine, writing against the heretic Manichee, that seemed much to savour of M. Harding's error, saith: [Christus] secundum præsentiam.... corporalem, simul et in sole, et in luna, et in cruce esse non potuit: "Christ, according to the presence Lib. xi. cap. of his body, could not be both in the sun, and in the moon, and upon the cross at August. one time." Again he saith: [Christus] venturus est, illa angelica voce testante, Manich. Lib. quemadmodum ire visus est in cœlum, id est, in eadem carnis forma atque substantia; August. cui profecto immortalitatem dedit, naturam non abstulit: “Christ shall come again, Epist. 57. as it is witnessed by the angel, even as he was seen to go into heaven; that is, in the same shape and substance of his flesh; unto which flesh as he hath given immortality, so hath he left unto it the same nature that it had before." Thus St Augustine. And further he saith, that "whoso holdeth that Christ's body is both in heaven and in earth at one time, utterly dissolveth and destroyeth the nature of the body of Christ 10" To be short, and not to overcharge the reader with allegations, St Augustine seemeth to give a special note by way of prophecy touching the same. For thus he saith: His... dictis mox ascendit in August. de cœlum: præmunire voluit aures nostras adversus eos, quos, procedentibus temporibus, cap. x. exsurrecturos esse prædixerat, et dicturos, Ecce hic... Christus, ecce illic: quibus ne crederemus, admonuit. Nec ulla nobis excusatio est, si crediderimus adversus vocem Pastoris [nostri] tam claram, tam apertam, tam manifestam, ut nemo vel obtusus, et tardus corde, possit dicere, Non intellexi12: "These words spoken, he ascended into heaven. Hereby he gave our ears a præmunire against them, which he foretold us would rise in process of time, and say: 'Behold, here is Christ; behold, there Matt. xxiv. is Christ.' Unto whom he warned us we should give no credit. Neither have we now any manner excuse, if we believe them against the voice of our Shepherd, being so clear, so open, and so plain, that no man, be he never so heavy or dull of heart, can justly say, I understood him not." Thus the old catholic doctors thought they might warrant the arguments for good and effectual, that they took of Christ's humanity, and of the natural substance of his body. But perhaps they must all go for new masters, and their arguments likewise be condemned for peevish. Unit. Eccles. Luke xvii. Let us therefore consider the arguments that M. Harding and his company have founded hereupon. Thus therefore reason they: Christ is ascended into Acts i. heaven in his humanity: "the heavens must hold his body," as St Peter saith, "until Acts iii. all things be restored." St Paul saith, "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence Phil. iii. we look for our Saviour Jesus Christ." Christ saith, "I leave the world, and go to John xvi. my Father:" "the poor ye shall still have among you, but me ye shall not have;" Matt. xxvi. ergo, say they, Christ is still here in the world in his corporal and fleshly presence. Christ's body is of nature and substance finite; ergo, it is in places infinite. Christ hath two sorts of bodies: one only local; all the rest of the other sort not local. It is in place, yet it occupieth or filleth no place. It is a very natural man's body; yet is it neither round, nor square, nor thick, nor broad, nor short, nor long. It hath in it no distance or difference of parts, as between eye and Thom. in iii. eye, or eye and ear, or head and foot; but eye, ear, arm, hand, heel, toe, head, Art. 30. and foot are all together, and each is other, and all is one. In ten thousand several places Christ's body is full and whole; and yet all these are but one Quæst. 76. [7 Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἀποδημεῖ σαρκὶ παραστήσας ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῷ Πατρὶ, κ.τ.λ.—Cyril. Alex. Op. Lut. 1638. Comm. in Joan. Lib. xi. cap. ii. Tom. IV. p. 933.] [8 August. Op. Par. 1679-1700. Contr. Faust. Lib. xx. cap. xi. Tom. VIII. col. 341; where posset.] [ Id. Lib. ad Dard. seu Epist. clxxxvii. 10. Tom. II. col. 681.] [10 Secundum hanc formam non est putandus ubique diffusus. Cavendum est enim, ne ita divinitatem adstruamus hominis, ut veritatem corporis auferamus. Id. ibid. See also ibid. 9, 18, 41. cols. 680, 3, 92.] ["1 This, 1565.] [12 Id. Contr. Donat. Epist. vulg. Lib. de Unit. Eccles, cap. xi. 28. Tom. IX. col. 355; where contra vocem.] |