66 ἄρτος ὃν δέδωκεν ἡμῖν Κύριος τοῦ φαγεῖν, τοῦτο τὸ ῥῆμα ὃ συνέταξε Κύριος, ὁρᾷς τῆς ψυχῆς τροφὴν δια ἐστὶ Λόγος Θεοῦ συνεχῆς, ἐοικὼς δρόσῳ κύκλῳ πᾶσαν περιειληφώς, καὶ μηδὲν μέρος ἀμέτοχον αὐτοῦ εῶν. Moses said unto them, 'This is the Word which the Lord hath given us to eat, This is the Word which the Lord hath ordained;' you see what is the food of the soul, even the eternal Word of God," &c. Kaλeï μávva τὸν πρεσβύτατον τῶν ὄντων Λόγον θεῖον, " The Word of God, the most honourable and eldest of things, is called manna ";" and τρέφεται δὲ τῶν μετὰ τελειότερον ἡ ψυχὴ ὅλῳ τῷ λόγῳ. “ The soul is nourished by the Word "," 66 qui pastus pulcherrimus est animorum. 19. And, therefore, now I will resume those testimonies of Clemens Alexandrinus, of Eusebius, St. Basil, St. Jerome, and St. Bernard, which I waved before, all agreeing upon this exposition, that "the word of God, Christ's doctrine, is the flesh" he speaks of, and the receiving it and practising it, is the eating his flesh; for this sense is the literal and proper: and St. Jerome is express to affirm, that the other exposition is mystical, and that this is the more true and proper: and therefore, the saying of Bellarmine, that they only give the mystical sense, is one of his confident sayings without reason, or pretence of proof: and whereas he adds, that they do not deny, that these words are also understood, literally, of the sacrament; I answer, it is sufficient that they agree in this sense and the other fathers do so expound it with an exclusion to the natural sense of eating Christ in the sacrament; particularly this appears in the testimonies of Origen and St. Ambrose above quoted: to which I add the words of Eusebius in the third book of his Theologia Ecclesiastica,' expounding the sixty-third verse of the sixth of St. John; he brings in Christ speaking thus; "Think not, that I speak of this flesh, which I bear; and do not imagine, that I appoint you to drink this sensible and corporal blood: but know ye, that the words which I have spoken, are spirit and life."-Nothing can be fuller to exclude their interpretation, and to affirm ours: though to do so be not usual, unless they were to expound Scripture in opposition to an adverb Allegoriis. In libro, Pejorem insidiari meliori. i De Euchar. lib. 1. c. 7. et ad alios patres. sary; and to require such hard conditions in the sayings of men, that when they speak against Titius, they shall be concluded not to speak against Caius, if they do not clap their contrary negative to their positive affirmative, though Titius and Caius be against one another in the cause, is a device to escape rather than to intend truth and reality in the discourses of men. I conclude, it is notorious and evident what Erasmus notes upon this place : "Hunc locum veteres interpretantur de doctrinâ cœlesti: sic enim dicit panem suum, ut frequenter dixit sermonem suum:" "The ancient fathers expound this place of the heavenly doctrine: so he calls the bread his own,' as he said often the word' to be 'his.'". And if the concurrent testimonies of Origen, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, St. Basil, Athanasius, Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Austin, Theophylact, and St. Bernard, are a good security for the sense of a place of Scripture, we have read their evidence, and may proceed to sentence. 20. But it was impossible, but these words, falling upon the allegory of bread and drink, and signifying the receiving Christ crucified, and communicating with his passion in all the ways of faith and sacrament,-should also meet with as allegorical expounders, and for the likeness of expression be referred to sacramental manducation: and yet, I said, this cannot at all infer transubstantiation, though sacramental manducation were only and principally intended. For if it had been spoken of the sacrament, the words had been verified in the spiritual sumption of it; for as Christ is eaten by faith out of the sacrament, so is he also in the sacrament: as he is real and spiritual meat to the worthy hearer, so is he to the worthy communicant: as Christ's flesh is life to all that obey him, so to all that obediently remember him; so Christ's flesh is meat indeed, however it be taken, if it be taken spiritually, but not however it be taken, if it be taken carnally he is nutritive in all the ways of spiritual manducation, but not in all the ways of natural eating, by their own confession, nor in any, by ours. And therefore it is a vain confidence to run away with the conclusion, if they should gain one of the premises; but the truth is this: it is neither properly spoken of the sacrament; neither, if it were, would prove any thing of transubstantiation. : 21. I will not be alone in my assertion, though the reasonableness and evidence would bear me out: St. Austin saith the same; "Spiritualiter intelligite, quod loquutus sum vobis: non hoc corpus, quod videtis, manducaturi estis: sacramentum aliquod commendavi vobis, spiritualiter intellectum vivificabit vos :" "That which I have spoken, is to be understood spiritually : ye are not to eat that body, which ye see: I have commended a sacrament to you, which, being understood spiritually, will give you life;"-where, besides that he gives testimony to the main question on our behalf, he also makes sacramentally and spiritually to be all one. And again: "Ut quia jam similitudinem mortis ejus in baptismo accipimus, similitudinem quoque sanguinis et carnis sumamus, ita ut et veritas non desit in sacramento, et ridiculum nullum fiat in Paganis, quod cruorem occisi hominis bibamus:" "That as we receive the similitude of his death in baptism, so we may also receive the likeness of his flesh and blood, so that neither truth be wanting in the sacrament, nor the Pagans ridiculously affirm, that we should drink the blood of the crucified man'."-Nothing could be spoken more plain in this question; "We receive Christ's body in the eucharist, as we are baptized into his death; that is, by figure and likeness. In the sacrament there is a verity or truth of Christ's body: and yet no drinking of blood or eating of flesh, so as the heathen may calumniate us by saying, we do that which the men of Capernaum thought Christ taught them they should."-So that though these words were spoken of sacramental manducation (as sometimes it is expounded), yet there is reality enough in the spiritual sumption to verify these words of Christ, without a thought of any bodily eating his flesh. And that we may not think this doctrine dropped from St. Austin by chance, he again affirms dogmatically, "Qui discordat à Christo, nec carnem ejus manducat, nec sanguinem bibit, etiamsi tantæ rei sacramentum ad judicium suæ præsumptionis quotidiè indifferenter accipiat:" "He that disagrees from Christ (that is, disobeys him), neither eats his flesh nor drinks his blood, although, to his condemnation, he every day receives the sacrament of so k Aug. in Psal. xcviii. I Gratianus ex Augustino de Consecrat. dist. 2. sect. utrum. Lugduni 1541. great a thing"."-The consequent of which words is plainly this, that there is no eating of Christ's flesh or drinking his blood, but by a moral instrument, faith and subordination to Christ; the sacramental external eating alone being no eating of Christ's flesh, but the symbols and sacrament of it. But it is "Hoc ." "It 22. Lastly: Suppose these words of Christ, " The bread which I shall give, is my flesh," were spoken literally of the sacrament; what he promised he would give, he performed, and what was here expressed in the future tense, was, in his time, true in the present tense; and, therefore, is always presently true after consecration; it follows, that in the sacrament this is true;" Panis est corpus Christi," "The bread is the body of Christ."-Now I demand whether this proposition will be owned. It follows inevitably from this doctrine, if these words be spoken of the sacrament. disavowed by the princes of the party against us. tamen est impossibile, quòd panis sit corpus Christi ;" is impossible that the bread should be Christ's body," saith the gloss of Gratian"; and Bellarmine says it cannot be a true proposition, "in quâ subjectum supponit pro pane, prædicatum autem pro corpore Christi; panis enim et corpus Domini res diversissimæ sunt."-The thing that these men dread, is, lest it be called bread' and 'Christ's body' too, as we affirm it unanimously to be; and as this argument, upon their own grounds, evinces it. Now then, how they can serve both ends, I cannot understand. If they will have the bread or the meat which Christ promised to give, to be his flesh, then so it came to pass; and then it is bread and flesh too. If it did not so come to pass, and that it is impossible that bread should be Christ's flesh; then, when Christ said the bread which he would give, should be his flesh, he was not to be understood properly of the sacrament; but either figuratively in the sacrament, or in the sacrament not at all; either of which will serve the end of truth in this question. But of this hereafter. By this time I hope I may conclude, that transubstantiation is not taught by our blessed Lord in the sixth chap Prosper Sent. 339. sed verba sunt St. Augustini. n De Consecrat. dist. 2. c. 55. Gloss. Panis est in altari. ter of St. John. "Johannes de tertiâ et eucharisticâ cœnâ nihil quidem scribit, eò quod cæteri tres evangelistæ ante illum eam plenè descripsissent.”—They are the words of Stapleton P, and are good evidence against them. SECTION IV. Of the Words of Institution. 1. "MULTA male oportet interpretari eos, qui unum non rectè intelligere volunt," said Irenæusa; 66 66 They must needs speak many false things, who will not rightly understand one."-The words of consecration are præcipuum fundamentum totius controversiæ atque adeò totius hujus altissimi mysterii," said Bellarmine"; "the greatest ground of the whole question;" and by adhering to the letter the mystery is lost, and the whole party wanders in eternal intricacies, and inextricable riddles; which because themselves cannot untie, they torment their sense and their reason, and many places of Scripture, while they pertinaciously stick to the impossible letter, and refuse the spirit of these words :— The words of institution are these: St. Matt. xxvi. 26.-" Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body: and he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all, of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." St. Mark, xiv. 22.-" Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat, this is my body: and he took the cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it; and he said to them, This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many." St. Luke, xxii. 19.-"And he took bread, and gave thanks, P Pompt. Cathol. ser. 3. Heb. Sanct. q Contr. Hæres. lib. 5. * Lib. 1. c. 8. Euchar. sect. sequitur argumentum. |