BOOK of his own men. And Erasmus noteth how the Evangelist writeth III. Christ to have prayed alone, and yet certain of his disciples were there. And if in a contention raised, whether the father and son were both killed in such a field or no, I defended the father to have been only killed there, and thereupon a wager laid; should I lose, if by proof it appeared, that not only the father, but also three or four of the father's servants were slain, but the son escaped? And as in this speech the word "only" served to exclude that was in contention, and not to reduce the number to one, no more is it in the speech that this author would reprove, and therefore needed not to have occupied himself in the matter, wherein I heard him once say in a good audience himself was satisfied. In which mind I would he had continued, and having so slender stuff as this is, and the truth so evident against him, not to have resuscitate this so often reproved untruth, wherein never hitherto any one could prevail. Canterbury. As for Damascene needeth no further answer than I have made in my former book. But I pray the reader, that he will diligently examine that place, and so to be an indifferent auditor betwixt us two. you Now when you be called to account for the number of 2 substances in the sacrament, I perceive by your wrangling, that you be somewhat moved with this audit, for because be called to account. And I cannot blame you, though it somewhat grieve you, for it toucheth the very quick. And although I myself can right well understand your numbers, that when you name but one, you mean four, yet you should have considered beforehand to whom your book was written. You wrote to plain simple people in the English tongue, which understand no further but one to be one, andfour to be four. And therefore when you say there is but one, and mean four, you attemper not your speech to the capacities of them to whom you write. Now have I answered to all your frivolous cavillations against my third book, and fortified it so strongly, that you have spent all your shot and powder in vain. And I trust I have either broken your pieces or pegged them, that you shall be able to shoot no more. Or if you shoot, the shot BOOK shall be so faint, that it shall not be able to pierce through a paper leaf. And the like I trust to do, to all the munition and ordnance laid against my fourth book. III. The Confutation of the Fourth Book. BOOK THUS having perused the effect of the third book, I will likewise peruse the fourth, and then shall follow in direct course to speak of the matter of transubstantiation. In this fourth book the author entreateth the eating and drinking of Christ's body and blood and in the first part thereof travaileth to confirm his purpose; and in the second part, answereth as he can to his adversaries, and so taketh occasion to speak of adoration. His chief purpose is to prove that evil men receive not the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, which, after this author's doctrine, is a very superfluous matter. For if the sacrament be only a figure, and the body and blood of Christ be there only figuratively, whereto should this author dispute of evil men's eating, when good men cannot eat Christ in the sacrament, because he is not there. For by the effect of this author's doctrine, the sacrament is but a visible preaching by the tokens and signs of bread and wine, that in believing and remembering Christ's benefits, with revolving them in our mind, we should in faith feed upon Christ spiritually, believing that as the bread and wine feedeth and nourisheth our bodies, so Christ feedeth and nourisheth 2 our souls: which be good words, but such as the words in Christ's supper do not learn us, and yet may be well gathered, not to limit the mystery of the supper, but to be spoken and taught 3 touching the believing and remembering Christ's benefits, with the revolving of them in our mind, thereby to learn us how to feed upon Christ continually without the use of the visible sacrament, being that called of St. Augustine e the invisible sacrament, wherein by faith we be nourished with the word of God, and the 4 virtue of Christ's body and blood, which the true teaching of the Church calleth spiritual manducation only, without which no August. In Sermone Domini in monte, lib. iii. [See p. 318. It will be seen by reference to the Authorities in the Appendix, that Gardyner's reasoning is founded on a corrupt reading: the majority of MSS. having "sacratum visibilem," instead of " sacramentum visibile."] IV. man is to be accounted a true member of the mystical body of BOOK Christ. And therefore whoso feedeth upon Christ thus spiritually must needs be a good man, for only good men be true mem5 bers of Christ's mystical body; which spiritual eating is so good a fruit, as it declareth the tree necessarily to be good, and therefore it must be and is a certain conclusion, that only good men do eat and drink the body and blood of Christ spiritually, that is to say, effectually to life. So as this author shall have of me no adversary therein. And if this author had proved that to be the true doctrine, that Christ's very body and blood is not present in the visible sacrament, then might he have left this fourth book unwritten. For after his doctrine, as I said before, good men do not eat Christ's body in the sacrament under the visible signs, for because it is not there; and then much less should evil men reach it. 6 In the catholic teaching, all the doctrine of eating of Christ is concluded in two manner of eatings, one in the visible sacrament sacramental, another spiritual without the sacrament. And because in the eating of the visible sacrament St. Paul speaketh of unworthy, the same true teaching, to open the matter more clearly according to Scripture, noteth unto us three manner of eatings: one spiritual only, which only good men do, feeding in faith without the visible sacrament. Another is both spiritual and sacramental, which also good men only do, receiving the visible sacrament, with a true sincere charitable faith. The third manner of eating is sacramental only, which after St. Paul, evil men do unworthily, and therefore have judgment and condemnation, and be guilty of our Lord's body, not esteeming our Lord's body there. And here ariseth the knot of contention with this author, who sayeth evil men eat but the sacramental bread; whereunto I reply, no more do good men neither, if this author's doctrine of the sacrament be true, seeing he will have it but a figure. If this author will say the effect is other in good men than in evil men, I will not strive therein. But to discuss this matter evidently, we must rightly open the truth, and then must consider the visible sacraments as they be of God's ordinance, who directeth us where to seek for his gifts and how, whose working, albeit it be not restrained by his sacraments, and therefore God may and doth invisibly sanctify and save as it pleaseth him, yet he teacheth us of his ordinary working in the visible sacraments, and ordereth us to seek his IV. BOOK gifts of health and life there: whereupon St. Augustin f noteth how baptism among the Christian men of Aphrike was very well called health, and the sacrament of Christ's body called life, as in which God giveth health and life, if we worthily use them. James 1. The sub God's work. John vi. The ordinance of these sacraments is God's work, the very author of them, who as he is in himself uniform, as St. James saith, without alteration, so, as David saith, his works be true, which is as much as uniform, for truth and uniform answereth together. As God is all goodness, so all his works be good. So as con- 7 stance of sidering the substance of God's works and ordinances as they be in themselves, they be alway uniform, certain, and true, in their substance, as God ordered them. Among men for whom they be wrought and ordered there is variety, good men, evil men, worthy, unworthy; but as St. Paul sayeth, there is but one Lord, one Ephes. iv. faith, one baptism. And the parable of the sower, which Christ Matth. xiii. declared himself, showeth a diversity of the grounds where the seed did fall, but the seed was all one that did fall in the good ground, and that did fall in the naughty ground, but it frựctified only in the good ground; which seed Christ calleth his word : and in the sixth of St. John saith, his word is spirit and life, so as by the teaching of Christ, spirit and life may fall upon 8 naughty men, although for their malice it tarrieth not, nor fructifieth not in them. And St. Augustine & according hereunto noteth how Christ's words be spirit and life, although thou dost carnally understand them, and hast no fruit of them, yet so they be spirit and life, but not to thee; whereby appeareth the substance of God's ordinance to be one, though we in the using of it vary. The promises of God cannot be disappointed by man's infidelity, 9 as St. Paul saith; which place Luther allegeth, to show the unity in the substance of baptism, whether it be ministered to good or evil. But St. Paul to the Corinthians declareth it notably in these words: We be the good savour of Christ in them that be saved, and them that perish. Here St. Paul noteth the savour good, and one to diverse men, but after the diversity in men, of diverse effects in them, that is to say, the savour of life and the savour of death; which saying of St. Paul the Greek scholies, gathered by Ecumenius, open and declare with similitudes in nature very aptly. The dove, they say, and the beetle, shall feed both upon one ointment, Rom. iii. 2 Cor. ii. Ecumenius. |