It shall be now to purpose, to consider the Scriptures touching the matter of the sacrament, which the author pretending to bring forth faithfully as the majesty thereof requireth, in the rehearsal of the words of Christ out of the Gospel of St. John, he beginneth 1 a little too low, and passeth over that pertaineth to the matter, and therefore should have begun a little higher, at this clause: And the bread which I shall give you is my flesh, which I will give for the

life of the world. The Jews therefore strived between themselves,

saying: How can this man give his flesh to be eaten? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is very meat, and my blood very drink. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; even so he that eateth me, shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead : he that eateth this bread shall live for ever.

Here is also a fault in the translation of the text, which should 2 be thus in one place. For my flesh is verily meat, and my blood is verily drink. In which speech, the verb that coupleth the words flesh and meat together, knitteth them together in their proper signification; so as the flesh of Christ is verily meat, and not figuratively meat, as the author would persuade. And in these words of Christ may appear plainly, how Christ taught the mystery of the food of his humanity, which he promised to give for food, even the same flesh that he said he would give for the life of the 3 world; and so expresseth the first sentence of this Scripture here by me wholly brought forth, that is to say: And the bread which I shall give you is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. And so it is plain that Christ spake of flesh in the same sense that St. John speaketh in, saying: The word was made flesh, signifying by flesh the whole humanity. And so did Cyril agree to Nestorius, when he, upon these texts, reasoned how 4 Nestorius. this eating is to be understanded of Christ's humanity, to which na[1580.] ture in Christ's person is properly attribute, to be eaten as meat spiritually to nourish man, dispensed and given in the sacrament.

Cyril and

I.

And between Nestorius and Cyril was this diversity in under- BOOK. standing the mystery, that Nestorius esteeming of each nature in Christ a several person, (as it was objected to him,) and so dissolving the ineffable unity, did so repute the body of Christ to be eaten as the body of a man separate. Cyril maintained the body of Christ to be eaten as a body inseparably united to the Godhead, and for the ineffable mystery of that union, the same to be a flesh 6 that giveth life. And then as Christ saith, If we eat not the flesh of the Son of man, we have not life in us; because Christ hath ori dered the sacrament of his most precious body and blood to nou

we receive

rish such as be by his Holy Spirit regenerate. And as in baptism In baptism 5 we receive the Spirit of Christ, for the renewing of our life, so do Christ's we in this sacrament of Christ's most precious body and blood, spirit to receive Christ's very flesh and drink his very blood, to continue and preserve, increase and augment the life received.

give life; in the

Lord's Sup

per we re

blood to

[1580.]

And therefore in the same form of words Christ spake to Ny-ceive his codemus of baptism, that he speaketh here of the eating of his flesh and body and drinking his blood; and in both sacraments, giveth, dis- continue penseth, and exhibiteth in deed those celestial gifts in sensible ele- life. ments, as Chrysostom saith. And because the true faithful believing men do only by faith know the Son of man to be in unity of person the Son of God, so as for the unity of the two natures in Christ in one person, the flesh of the Son of man is the proper flesh of the Son of God.

66

St. Augustine said well, when he noted these words of Christ, Verily, verily, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, &c." to be a figurative speech, because after the bare letter it seemeth unprofitable, considering that flesh profiteth nothing in itself, esteemed in the own nature alone; but as the same flesh in Christ is united to the divine nature, so is it, as Christ said, after Cyril's exposition, spirit and life, not changed into the divine nature of the spirit, but for the ineffable union in the person of Christ thereunto, it is vivificatrix, as Cyril said, and as the holy Ephesine Council decreed, a flesh giving life, according to Christ's words : Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the latter day. And then to declare unto us, how in giving this life to us, Christ useth the instrument of his very human body, it followeth : For my flesh is verily meat, and my blood verily drink. So like as Christ sanctifieth by his godly spirit, so doth he sanctify us by his godly flesh and there

I.

BOOK fore repeateth again, to inculcate the celestial thing of this mystery, and saith, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him; which is the natural and corporal union between us and Christ. Whereupon followeth, that as Christ is naturally in his Father, and his Father in him; so he that eateth verily the flesh of Christ, he is by nature in Christ, and Christ is naturally in him, and the worthy receiver hath life increased, augmented, and confirmed by the participation of the flesh of Christ.

And because of the ineffable union of the two natures, Christ said, This is the food that came down from heaven; because God, whose proper flesh it is, came down from heaven, and hath another virtue than manna had; because this giveth life to them that worthily receive it, which manna, being but a figure thereof, did not, but being in this food Christ's very flesh inseparably unite to the Godhead, the same is of such efficacy, as he that worthily eateth of it, shall live for ever. And thus I have declared the sense of Christ's words, brought forth out of the Gospel of St. John. Whereby appeareth how evidently they set forth the doctrine of the mystery of the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking his blood in the sacrament, which must needs be understanded of a corporal eating, as Christ did after order in the institution of the said 7 sacrament, according to his promise and doctrine here declared.

Canterbury.

Here, before you enter into my second untruth, as you call it, you find fault by the way, that in the rehearsal of the words of Christ out of the Gospel of St. John, I begin a little too low. But if the reader consider the matter for the which I allege St. John, he shall well perceive that I began at the right place where I ought to begin. For I do not bring forth St. John for the matter of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, (whereof is no mention made in that chapter, and as it would not have served me for that purpose, no more doth it serve you, although you cited the whole Gospel,) but I bring St. John for the matter of eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, wherein I passed over nothing that pertaineth to that matter, but rehearse the whole fully and faithfully. And because the reader may the better understand the matter, and judge between us

I

both, I shall rehearse the words of my former book, which BOOK be these.

[See vol. ii. p. 291-293. "The Supper of the Lord"

"live for ever."]

Here have I rehearsed the words of Christ faithfully and fully, so much as pertaineth to the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood. And I have begun neither too high nor too low, but taking only so much as served for the

matter.

I.

untruth, for

66

2 But here have I committed a fault, say you, in the trans- The second lation, for verily meat, translating very meat. And this is an- « verily other of the evident and manifest untruths by me uttered, meat," as you esteem it. Wherein a man may see how hard it is translating 66 very to escape the reproaches of Momus. For what an horrible meat." crime, trow you, is committed here, to call very meat that which is verily meat? As who should say, that very meat is not verily meat, or that which is verily meat were not very meat. The old authors say very meat, åληons ẞpŵσis, verus cibus, in an hundred places'.

And what skilleth it for the diversity of the words, where no diversity is in the sense? And whether we say, very meat, or verily meat, it is a figurative speech in this place, and the sense is all one; and if you will look upon the New Testament lately set forth in Greek by Robert Stevens, you shall see that he had three Greek copies, which in the said sixth chapter of John have ἀληθὴς, and not ἀληθῶς. Το that I may be bold to say, that you find fault here where none is.

And here in this place you show forth your old condition, The nature which you use much in this book, in following the nature of of a cuttle.

66

1 Origenes, In Levit. Hom. 7. "Propterea ergo et caro ejus verus "est cibus, et sanguis ejus verus est potus." Et In Matt. Hom. 12. "Caro mea vera est esca, et sanguis meus verus est potus." Hieron. In Eccles. cap. iii. "Caro enim verus est cibus, et sanguis ejus verus est potus." August. In Psalm. xxxiii. "Caro mea vera est esca, et "sanguis meus vere potus est." Damasc. lib. iv. cap. 14. "Caro mea verus est cibus, et sanguis meus verus est potus." Euthymius, In Joan. cap. ix. "Caro mea verus est cibus, et sanguis meus verus est "potus." [1580.]

BOOK
I.

Ecclus. xxxvii.

Christ is

verily and truly given

in the sa

crament, but yet

a cuttle.

"The property of the cuttle," saith Pliny", "is to cast out a black ink or colour whensoever she spieth "herself in danger to be taken, that the water being trou"bled and darkened therewith, she may hide herself, and 66 so escape untaken." After like manner do you throw out this whole book. For when you see none other way to fly and escape, then you cast out your black colours, and make yourself so in clouds and darkness, that men should not discern where you become: which is a manifest argument of untrue meaning; for he that meaneth plainly, speaketh plainly: Et qui sophistice loquitur, odibilis est, saith the wise man. For he that speaketh obscurely and darkly, it is a token that he goeth about to cast mists before men's eyes, that they should not see, rather than to open their eyes that they may clearly see the truth.

And therefore to answer you plainly, the same flesh that 3 was given in Christ's last supper, was given also upon the cross, and is given daily in the ministration of the sacrament. But although it be but one thing, yet it was diversely given. spiritually. For upon the cross Christ was carnally given to suffer and to die at his last supper he was spiritually given in a promise of his death, and in the sacrament he is daily given in remembrance of his death. And yet it is all but one Christ that was promised to die, that died in deed, and whose death is remembered; that is to say, the very same Christ, the eternal Word that was made flesh. And the same flesh was also given to be spiritually eaten, and was eaten in deed before his supper, yea and before his incarnation also. Of which eating, and not of sacramental eating, he spake in the sixth of John, My flesh is very meat, and my blood is very drink he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

John vi.

And Cyril", I grant, agreed to Nestorius in the substance 4 of the thing that was eaten, which is Christ's very flesh, but in the manner of eating they varied. For Nestorius imagined a carnal eating, as the papists do, with mouth, and tearing

m Plin. lib. ix. cap. 29. [1580.]

n

Cyril. Anathematismo xi.