III. BOOK of, declared the determination of his glorious passion, and the fruit and effect thereof. Which doing was a sweet and pleasant oblation to God the Father, containing a most perfect obedience to God's will and pleasure. And in the mystery of this Supper was written, made, and sealed, a most perfect testimony, for an effectual memory of Christ's offering of himself to his Father, and of his death and passion, with the fruit thereof. And therefore 10 Christ ordained this Supper, to be observed and continued for a memory to his coming: so as we that saw not with our bodily eyes Christ's death and passion, may in the celebration of the Supper, be most suredly ascertained of the truth out of Christ's own mouth. Who still speaketh in the person of the minister of the Church: This is my body that is betrayed for you: This is my blood that is shed for you in remission of sin: and therewith maketh his very body truly present, and his precious blood truly present, to be taken of us, eaten and drunken. Whereby we may be assured, that Christ is the same to us, that he was to them, and useth us as familiarly as he did them, offereth himself to his Father for us as well as for them, declareth his will in the fruit of his death to pertain as well to us as to them. Of which death we be assured by his own mouth, that he suffered the same to the effect he spake of; and by the continual feeding in this high mystery of the same very body that suffered, and feeding of it without consumption, being continually exhibite unto us a living body and lively blood, not only our soul is specially and spiritually comforted, and our body thereby reduced to more conformable obedience to the soul, but also we, by the participation of this most precious body and blood, be ascertained of the resurrection and regeneration of our bodies and flesh, to be by God's power made incorruptible and immortal, to live and have fruition in God with our soul for ever. Truths linked to- Wherefore, having this mystery of Christ's Supper so many truths in it, the Church hath celebrate thein all, and knowledged them all of one certainty in truth, not as figures, but really in deed; that is to say, as our body shall be in the general resurrection, regenerate in deed, so we believe we feed here of Christ's body in deed. And as it is true that Christ's body in deed is betrayed for us, so it is true that he giveth us to eat his very body in deed. And as it is true that Christ was in earth and did celebrate this Supper, so it is true that he commanded it to be cele III. brate by us till he come. And as it is true that Christ was very God BOOK omnipotent, and very man, so it is true that he could do that he affirmed by his word himself to do. And as he is most sincere truth, so may we be truly assured that he would, and did as he said. And as it is true that he is most just, so it is true that he assisteth the doing of his commandment in the celebration of the holy Supper. And therefore, as he is author of this most holy sacrament of his precious body and blood, so is he the maker of it, and is the invisible priest, who, as Emissene saith, by his Emissesecret power, with his word, changeth the visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood. Wherein man, the visi- the invisible priest. ble priest and minister by order of the Church, is only a dis[1580.] penser of the mystery, doing and saying as the Holy Ghost hath taught the Church to be done and said. nus. Christ is Finally, as we be taught by faith all these to be true, so when I Cor. iv. wanton reason, faith being asleep, goeth about by curiosity to impair any one of these truths, the chain is broken, the links sparkle abroad, and all is brought in danger to be scattered and scambled at. Truths have been abused, but yet they be true as they were before: for no man can make that is true false, and abuse is man's fault and not the things'. Scripture in speech giveth to man, as God's minister, the name of that action which God specially worketh in that ministry. So it pleaseth God to honour the ministry of man in his Church, by whom it also pleaseth him to work effectually. And Christ said, They that be- Errors. lieve in me shall do the works that I do, and greater. When all One offering of this honour is given to man, as spiritually to regenerate, when the Christ, not minister saith, I baptize thee,' and to remit sin to such as fall many. after, to be also a minister in consecration of Christ's most precious body, with the ministration of other sacraments, benediction, and prayer if man should then wax proud, and glory as of himself, and extol his own devotion in these ministries, such men should bewray their own naughty hypocrisy, and yet thereby impair not the very dignity of the ministry, ne the very true fruit and effect thereof. And therefore, when the Church by the minister prayeth that the creatures of bread and wine set on the altar, (as the Book of Common Prayer in this realm hath ordered,) may be unto us the body and blood of our Saviour Christ; we require then the celebration of the same supper which Christ made to his Apostles, for to be the continual memory of his [1580.] BOOK death, with all fruit and effect, such as the same had in the first institution. Wherefore, when the minister pronounceth Christ's words as spoken of his mouth, it is to be believed that Christ doth now as he did then. And it is to be noted, that although in the sacrament of baptism the minister saith, I baptize thee,' yet in the celebration of this Supper, the words be spoken in Christ's person, as saying himself, This is my body that is broken for you, which is to us not only a memory, but an effectual memory with the very presence of Christ's body and blood, our very sacrifice; who, 11 doing now as he did then, offereth himself to his Father as he did then, not to renew that offering as though it were imperfect, but continually to refresh us, that daily fall and decay. And, as St. 1 John. ii. John saith, Christ is our advocate and entreateth for us, or pleadeth for us; not to supply any want on God's behalf, but to relieve our wants in edification, wherein the ministry of the Church travaileth to bring man to perfection in Christ, which Christ himself doth assist and absolutely perform in his Church, his mystical body. Now when we have Christ's body thus present in the celebration of the holy Supper, and by Christ's mouth present unto us, saying, This is my body which is betrayed for you; then have we Christ's body recommended unto us as our sacrifice, and a sacrifice propitiatory for all the sins of the world, being the only sacrifice of Christ's Church, the pure and clean sacrifice, whereof the prophet Malachie spake, and whereof the fathers in Christ's Church have since the beginning continually written; the very true presence whereof, most constantly believed, hath increased from time to time such ceremonies as have been used in the celebration of that Supper, in which, by Christ's own mouth, we be ascertained of his most glorious death and passion; and the selfsame body that suffered, delivered unto us in mystery to be eaten of us, and therefore so to be worshipped and acknowledged of us as our very only sacrifice, in whom, by whom, and for whom, our other private gifts and sacrifices be acceptable, and none otherwise. Malac. i. Errors. [1580.] And therefore, as Christ declareth in the Supper himself an 3 offering and sacrifice for our sin, offering himself to his Father as our mediator, and so therewith recommendeth to his Father the The whole Church his body, for which he suffereth: so the Church at the same Church by Supper, in their offering of lauds and thanks, with such other the minis + III. sent as a tory, Lord's I Tim. ii. gifts as they have received from God, join themselves with their BOOK head Christ, presenting and offering him, as one by whom, for. whom, and in whom, all that by God's grace man can do well, is ter, the priest, ofavailable and acceptable, and without whom nothing by us done fereth can be pleasant in the sight of God. Whereupon this persuasion Christ prehath been truly conceived, which is also in the Book of Common sacrifice Prayer, in the celebration of the holy Supper retained, that it is propitiavery profitable at that time, when the memory of Christ's death is wherein is solemnized, to remember with prayer all estates of the Church, and shewed our to recommend them to God, which St. Paul to Timothy seemeth death. to require. At which time, as Christ signifieth unto us the cer- [1580.] tainty of his death, and giveth us to be eaten, as it were in pledge, the same his precious body that suffered; so we, for declaration of our confidence in that death and sacrifice, do kindly remember with thanks his special gifts, and charitably remember the rest of the members of Christ's Church with prayer; and as we are able, should with our bodily goods remember, at that time specially, to relieve such as have need by poverty. And again, as Christ putteth us in remembrance of his great benefit, so we should thoroughly remember him for our part, with the true confession of this mystery, wherein is recapitulate a memorial of all gifts and mysteries that God in Christ hath wrought for us. In the consideration and estimation whereof, as there hath been a fault in the security of such, as so their names were remembered in this holy time of memory, they cared not how much they forgat themselves; so there may be a fault in such, as neglecting it, care not whether they be remembered there at all, and therefore would have it nothing but a plain eating and drinking. How much the remembrance in prayer may avail, no man can prescribe, but that it availeth every Christian man must confess. Man may nothing arrogate to his devotion; but St. James said truly, Multum valet James v. oratio justi assidua. It is to be abhorred to have hypocrites that counterfeit devotion, but true devotion is to be wished of God and prayed for, which is God's gift; not to obscure his glory, but to set it forth; not that we should then trust in men's merits and prayers, but laud and glorify God in them, qui talem potestatem dedit hominibus, none to be judged able to relieve another with his prayer, referring all to proceed from God, by the mediation of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I have tarried long in this matter, to declare that for the effect of all celestial or worldly III. BOOK gifts to be obtained of God in the celebration of Christ's holy Supper, when we call it the communion, is now prayed for to be present, and is present, and with God's favour shall be obtained, if we devoutly, reverently, charitably, and quietly use and frequent the same without other innovations than the order of the Book prescribeth. Now to the last difference. Whether the mass be Canterbury. How is this comparison out of the matter of the presence i of Christ's most precious body in the sacrament, when the papists say, that the mass is not a sacrifice propitiatory, but because of the presence of Christ's most precious body being presently there? And yet if this comparison be out of the matter, as you say it is, why do you then wrestle and wrangle with it so much? And do I seem to grant the presence of Christ's body in the first part of my comparison, when I do nothing there but rehearse what the papists do say? But because all this process (which you bring in here out of tune and time) belongeth to the last book, I will pass it over unto the proper place, only by the way touching shortly some notable words. Although you never read that the oblation of the priest is 2 satisfactory satisfactory by devotion of the priest, yet nevertheless the by the de- papists do so teach, and you may find it in their St. Thomas, the priest. both in his Sum, and upon the fourth of the Sentences, whose votion of works have been read in the universities almost this three hundred years, and never until this day reproved by any of the papists in this point. He saith, "Quod sacrificium sacer"dotis habet vim satisfactivam, sed in satisfactione magis "attenditur affectus offerentis, quam quantitas oblationis. "Ideo satisfactoria est illis pro quibus offertur, vel etiam of"ferentibus, secundum quantitatem suæ devotionis, et non "pro tota pœnaf." But here the reader may see in you, that the adversaries 3 of the truth sometime be enforced to say the truth, although sometime they do it unawares, as Cayphas prophesied the truth, and as you do here confess, that Christ is our satisfaction wholly and fully. f Tho. part. 3. q. 79. art. 5. I |