made, all running upon two points, that the Eucharist is not a bare sign or figure only, and that the efficacy of his body and blood is not all we receive in this sacrament. For no man, having read their books and writings which are thus traduced, can be ignorant that both these assertions they plainly confess to be most true. They do not so interpret the words of Christ, as if the name of his body did import but the figure of his body; and to be, were only to signify his blood. They grant that these holy mysteries, received in due manner, do instrumentally both make us partakers of the grace of that body and blood which were given for the life of the world, and besides also impart unto us, even in true and real, though mystical, manner, the very Person of our Lord himself, whole, perfect, and entire, as hath been shewed. Now whereas all three opinions do thus far accord in one, that strong conceit which two of the three have embraced, as touching a literal, corporal, and oral manducation of the very substance of his flesh and blood, is surely an opinion nowhere delivered in holy Scripture, whereby they should think themselves bound to believe it; and (to speak with the softest terms we can use) greatly prejudiced in that, when some others did so conceive of eating his flesh, our Saviour, to abate that error in them, gave them directly to understand how his flesh so eaten could profit them nothing, because the words which he spake were spirit; that is to say, they had a reference to a mystical participation, which mystical participation giveth life. Wherein there is small appearance of likelihood that his meaning should be only to make them Marcionites by inversion, and to teach them, that as Marcion did think Christ seemed to be man, but was not; so they contrariwise should believe that Christ in truth would so give them, as they thought, his flesh to eat; but yet, lest the horror thereof should offend them, he would not seem to do that he did. When they which have this opinion of Christ in that blessed sacrament, go about to explain themselves, and to open after what manner things are brought to pass, the one sort lay the union of Christ's deity with his manhood, as their first foundation and ground: from thence they infer a power which the body of Christ hath, thereby to present itself in all places, out BOOK V. Ch. lxvii. Ch. Ixvii. BOOK V of which ubiquity of his body they gather the presence thereof with that sanctified bread and wine of our Lord's Table; the conjunction of his body and blood with those elements, they use as an argument to shew how the bread may as well in that respect be termed his body, because his body is therewith joined, as the Son of God may be named man, by reason, that God and man in the person of Christ are united; to this they add, how the words of Christ commanding us to eat must needs import, that as he hath coupled the substance of his flesh and the substance of bread together, so we together should receive both; which labyrinth as the other sort doth justly shun, so the way which they take to the same inn is somewhat more short, but no whit more certain. For through God's omnipotent power they imagine that transubstantiation followeth upon the words of consecration: and, upon transubstantiation, the participation of Christ's both body and blood, in the only shape of sacramental elements. So that they all three do plead God's omnipotency: sacramentaries, to that alteration which the rest confess he accomplisheth; the patrons of transubstantiation, over and besides that, to the change of one substance into another; the followers of consubstantiation, to the kneading of both substances, as it were, into one lump. Touching the sentence of antiquity in this cause; first, forasmuch as they knew that the force of this sacrament doth necessarily presuppose the verity of Christ's both body and blood, they used oftentimes the same as an argument to prove, that Christ hath as truly the substance of man as of God; because here we receive Christ, and those graces which flow from him, in that he is man: so that, if he have no such being, neither can the sacrament have any such meaning as we all confess it hath. Thus Tertullian," thus Irenæus, thus Theo a "Acceptum panem et distributum discipulis corpus suum illum fecit, hoc est corpus meum' dicendo, id est figura corporis mei. Figura autem non fuisset, nisi veritatis esset corpus, cum vacua res, quod est phantasma, figuram capere non possit." Tertull. contra Marc. lib. iv. cap. 40. b"Secundum hæc (that is to say, if it should be true which heretics have taught, denying that Christ took upon him the nature of man) nec Dominus sanguine suo redemit nos, neque calix Eucharistiæ communicatio sanguinis ejus erit, nec panis quem frangimus communicatio corporis ejus est. Sanguis enim non est, nisi a venis et carnibus et a reliqua quæ est secundum hominem substantia." Iren. lib. v. cap. 2. Ch. Ixvii. doret, disputeth. Again, as evident it is how they teach that Book V. Christ is personally there present, yea present whole, albeit a part of Christ be corporally absent from thence; that Christ," assisting this heavenly banquet with his personal and true presence, doth by his own divine power add to the natural substance thereof supernatural efficacy, which addition to the nature of those consecrated elements changeth them, and maketh them that unto us which otherwise they could not be, that to us they are thereby made such instruments, as mystically yet truly, invisibly yet really, work our communion or fellowship with the person of Jesus Christ, as well in that he is man as God, our participation also in the fruit, grace, and efficacy of his body and blood; whereupon there ensueth a kind of transubstantiation in us, a true change f both of soul * Εἰ τοίνυν τοῦ ὄντος σώματος ἀντίτυπά ἐστι τὰ θεῖα μυστήρια, σῶμα ἄρα ἐστὶ καὶ νῦν τοῦ δεσπότου τὸ σῶμα, οὐκ εἰς θεότητος φύσιν μεταβληθὲν, ἀλλὰ θείας δόξης ἀναπλησθέν. Theodor. Ασύγχυτος. [Dio. ii. p. 84.] "Sacramenta quidem, quantum in se est, sine propria virtute esse non possunt, nec ullo modo se absentat majestas mysteriis." Cypr. de Coen. cap. 7. e "Sacramento visibili ineffabiliter divina se infundit essentia, ut esset religioni circa sacramenta devotio." Idem cap. 6. "Invisibilis sacerdos visibiles creaturas in substantiam corporis et sanguinis sui verbo suo secreta potestate convertit. In spiritualibus sacramentis verbi præcipit virtus et servit effectus." Euseb. Emissen. Hom. 5. de Pasch. [p. 560. par. i. t. 5. Biblioth. Patr. Lat.] 4 [Eran.] Τὰ σύμβολα τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ σώματός τε καὶ αἵματος ἄλλα μέν εἰσι πρὸ τῆς ἱερατικῆς ἐπικλήσεως, μετὰ δέ γε τὴν ἐπίκλησιν μεταβάλλεται καὶ ἕτερα γίνεται. [Orth.] Αλλ' οὐκ οἰκείας ἐξίσταται φύσεως. Μένει γὰρ ἐπὶ τῆς προτέρας οὐσίας καὶ τοῦ σχήματος καὶ τοῦ εἴδους, καὶ ὁρατά ἐστι καὶ ἁπτὰ, οἷα καὶ πρότερον ἦν· νοεῖται δὲ ἅπερ ἐγένετο καὶ πιστεύεται καὶ προσκυνεῖται ὡς ἐκεῖνα ὄντα ἅπερ πιστεύεται. Theodor. [Dial. ii. p. 85.] "Ex quo a Domino dictum est, Hoc facite in meam commemorationem, Hæc est caro mea, et Hic est sanguis meus, quotiescunque his verbis et hac fide actum est, panis iste supersubstantialis, et calix benedictione solenni sacratus, ad totius hominis vitam salutemque proficit." Cypr. de Cœn. cap. 3. "Immortalis alimonia datur, a communibus cibis differens, corporalis substantiæ retinens speciem, sed virtutis divinæ invisibili efficientia probans adesse præsentiam." Ibid. сар. 2. e "Sensibilibus sacramentis inest vitæ æternæ effectus, et non tam corporali quam spirituali transitione Christo unimur. Ipse enim et panis et caro, et sanguis, idem cibus, et substantia et vita factus est Ecclesiæ suæ quam corpus suum appellat, dans ei participationem spiritus." Cyprian. de Coen. cap. 5. "Nostra et ipsius conjunctio nec miscet personas, nec unit substantias, sed effectus consociat et confœderat voluntates." Ibid. cap. 6. "Mansio nostra in ipso est manducatio, et potus quasi quædam incorporatio." Ibid. cap. 9. "Ille est in Patre per naturam divinitatis, nos in eo per corporalem ejus nativitatem, ille rursus in nobis per sacramentorum mysterium." Hilar. de Trin. lib. viii. [§. 15.] f "Panis hic azymus cibus verus et sincerus per speciem et sacramentum nos tactu Ch. lxvii. BOOK V. and body, an alteration from death to life. In a word, it appeareth not, that of all the ancient Fathers of the Church any one did ever conceive or imagine other than only a mystical participation of Christ's both body and blood in the sacrament; neither are their speeches concerning the change of the elements themselves into the body and blood of Christ such, that a man can thereby in conscience assure himself it was their meaning to persuade the world, either of a corporal consubstantiation of Christ with those sanctified and blessed elements before we receive them, or of the like transubstantiation of them into the body and blood of Christ. Which both to our mystical communion with Christ are so unnecessary, that the Fathers, who plainly hold but this mystical communion, cannot easily be thought to have meant any other change of sacramental elements, than that which the same spiritual communion did require them to hold. These things considered, how should that mind which, loving truth and seeking comfort out of holy mysteries, hath not perhaps the leisure, perhaps not the wit nor capacity, to tread out so endless mazes as the intricate disputes of this cause have led men into, how should a virtuously disposed mind better resolve with itself than thus? "Variety of judgments and opinions argueth obscurity in those things whereabout they differ: but that which all parties receive for truth, that which every one having sifted, is by no one denied or doubted of, must needs be matter of infallible certainty. Whereas, therefore, there are but three expositions made of, 'This is my body:' the first, This is in itself before participation really and truly the natural substance of my body, by reason of the coexistence which my omnipotent body hath sanctificat, fide illuminat, veritate Christo conformat." Cypr. de Coen. c. 6. "Non aliud agit participatio corporis et sanguinis Christi, quam ut in id quod sumimus transeamus, et in quo mortui et sepulti et corresuscitati sumus, ipsum per omnia et spiritu et carne gestemus." Leo de Pasch. Serm. 14. [c. 5. fin.] "Quemadmodum qui est a terra panis percipiens Dei vocationem (id est facta invocatione divini numinis) jam non communis panis est, sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans, terrena et cœlesti: sic et corpora nostra, percipientia Eucharistiam, jam non sunt corruptibilia, spem resurrectionis habentia." Iren. lib. iv. cap. 34. "Quoniam salutaris caro verbo Dei quod naturaliter vita est conjuncta, vivifica effecta est; quando cam comedimus, tunc vitam habemus in nobis, illi carni conjuncti, quæ vita effecta est." Cyril. in Johan. lib. iv. cap. 14. Of Controversies on the Real Presence. 11 Ch. Ixvii. with the sanctified element of bread, which is the Lutheran's BOOK V. interpretation; the second, This is in itself and before participation the very true and natural substance of my body, by force of that Deity, which with the words of consecration abolisheth the substance of bread, and substituteth in the place thereof my body, which is the popish construction; the last, This hallowed food, through concurrence of divine power, is, in verity and truth, unto faithful receivers, instrumentally a cause of that mystical participation, whereby as I make myself wholly theirs, so I give them in hand an actual possession of all such saving grace as my sacrificed body can yield, and as their souls do presently need, this is to them, and in them, my body: of these three rehearsed interpretations, the last hath in it nothing but what the rest do all approve and acknowledge to be most true; nothing but that which the words of Christ are, on all sides, confessed to enforce; nothing but that which the Church of God hath always thought necessary; nothing but that which alone is sufficient for every Christian man to believe concerning the use and force of this sacrament; finally, nothing but that wherewith the writings of all antiquity are consonant, and all Christian confessions agreeable. And as truth, in what kind soever, is by no kind of truth gainsayed; so the mind, which resteth itself on this, is never troubled with those perplexities which the other do find, by means of so great contradiction between. their opinions and true principles of reason grounded upon experience, nature, and sense: which albeit, with boisterous courage and breath, they seem oftentimes to blow away; yet whoso observeth how again they labour and sweat by subtilty of wit to make some show of agreement between their peculiar conceits and the general edicts of nature, must needs perceive they struggle with that which they cannot fully master. Besides, sith of that which is proper to themselves, their discourses are hungry and unpleasant, full of tedious and irksome labour, heartless, and hitherto without fruit; on the other side, read we them or hear we others, be they of our own or of ancienter times, to what part soever they be thought to incline, touching that whereof there is controversy, yet in this, where they all speak but one thing, their discourses are heavenly, their words sweet as the honey |