tively, but really and substantially. Unless perhaps respect bell had, not to the body itself present, but to the manner of presence, as sometimes it happeneth. So is St Basil to be understanded, in Liturgia, calling the sacrament antitypon 12, that is, a sampler or a figure, and that after consecration; as the copies that be now abroad be found to have. So is Eustathius to be taken, that great learned father of the Greek church, who so constantly defended the catholic faith against the Arians, cited of Epiphanius, in VII. Synodo 13. Albeit concerning St Basil, DamasLib. ie. cap. xiv. cene 14, and Euthymius 15, likewise Epiphanius in the second Nicene council, Act. 613, and Marcus Ephesius 16, who was present at the council of Florence, would have that place so to be taken before consecration. (188) As St Ambrose also, calling it a figure of our Lord's body and blood, The hundred Lib. iv. De Sacramentis, cap. v. In cap. Matt. THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. and eightyeighth untruth. For St Ambrose saith: "Post consecrationem corpus [Christi] tur 7." Lib. iv. cap. xiv. Innoc. Lib. xcv. M. Harding, as he is content to yield to these names, figure, sign, token, &c., significaso he addeth thereto an exposition of his own, such as I believe he can hardly find the like in any ancient father. Therefore it must be such a figure, not as the old doctors and learned fathers have at any time used, but such as M. Harding can best imagine; and therefore now not the old doctors', but M. Harding's new figure. Indeed Tertullian saith: Hæretici...nudas...voces con- Tertull. jecturis quo volunt rapiunt 18: "Heretics, by their conjectural guesses, draw bare Marcion. words whither they list." With such conditions the wicked heretic Nestorius was contented to grant Christ to be God; but by his lewd exposition he made him no God; for thus he said: Non invideo Christo divinitatem suam: hoc et ego Cyril. Lib. v. fieri possum, si volo: "It grieveth me not to confess Christ to be God: I myself 19 can be God too, if I list." The Pelagian heretics, notwithstanding they were the enemies of God's grace, yet, being forced by disputation and con- August. ad ference, were content to yield, and to confess the grace of God 20. But by their fantastical exposition in the end they made it no grace at all. In like manner M. Harding, notwithstanding he be driven by force to confess the name of figure, yet, as he glosseth it with his colours, indeed he maketh it no figure. Sometimes he saith it is a figure of Christ's body secretly being there; sometimes, it is a figure of the life to come; sometimes, common bread is a figure; sometimes, the accident and outward form of bread is a figure; sometimes, Christ's body invisible is a figure of Christ's body visible-all hitherto M. Harding. Sometimes also, it is a figure of the church; so saith Hosius: Sacramenta In Confess. nostra...sunt quodammodo per figuram ipsum corpus Christi, cujus sacramenta cap. xxxix. sunt, id est, ecclesia21: "Our sacraments are in a manner, by a figure, the very body of Christ, whereof they be sacraments; that is to say, our sacraments be the church." Thus many ways these men have sought to make up a new kind of figure, such as neither grammarian, nor rhetorician, nor divine ever understood before. Significat, "it signifieth," is as much to say, saith M. Harding, as continet, "it containeth :" "it is a figure," that is to say, "it is the thing itself:" "it is a figure," that is, in conclusion, "it is no figure." Yet all these figures in the end be not sufficient to expound one figure. Truth is ever certain and simple: contrariwise, falsehood 22 is doubtful and double. How much better were it for these men to speak so as the old learned fathers [11 He, 1565.] [12 See before, page 579, note 13.] [13 Ref. falso Nom. Def. Tom. 111. in Concil. Nic. II. Act. VI. in Concil. Stud. Labb. et Cossart. Lut. Par. 1671-2. Tom. VII. col. 449.] [14 Damascen. Op. Par. 1712. De Fid. Orthod. Lib. IV. cap. xiii. Tom. I. p. 273.] [15 Euthym. Zigab. Comm. in Quat. Evang. Lips. 1792. In Matt. cap. xxvi. Tom. I. Pars II. p. 1015.] [15 See above, page 574, note 10.] [17 Ambros. Op. Lib. de Myst. cap. ix. 54. Tom. II. col. 339.] [18 Tertull. Op. Adv. Marcion. Lib. 1v. 19. p. 531.] [20 August. Op. Ad Innoc. Aur. et cet. Epist. [21 Hos. Op. Col. 1584. Confess. Fid. cap. xxxix. Petricov. Variety August. de August. de 66 were content to speak? St Augustine saith: De signis disserens hoc dico, ne quis in eis attendat, quod sunt, sed potius quod signa sunt, hoc est, quod significant1: Reasoning of signs, I say thus: Let no man consider in them that they be, but rather that they be signs, that is to say, that they do signify." Again he saith: Cavendum est, ne figuratam orationem ad literam accipias... Ad hoc... pertinet, Lib. ii. cap. i. quod apostolus ait, Litera occidit2: "We must beware that we take not a figurative Doctr. Christ. speech according to the letter. For thereto it appertaineth3 that the apostle Hieron. in saith, ‘The letter killeth'." St Hierome saith: Quando dico tropicam [locutionem], doceo, verum non esse, quod dicitur, sed allegoriæ nubilo figuratum1: "When I name a figurative speech, I mean, that the thing that is spoken is not true, but fashioned Chrysost. in under the cloud of an allegory." Likewise Chrysostom: Non alienum oportet esse Patres nostri typum a veritate; alioqui non esset typus: neque omnino adæquari veritati; alioqui et veritas ipsa foret: "The figure may not be far off from the truth; otherwise it were no figure: neither may it be even, and one with the truth; otherwise it would be the truth itself," and so no figure. Lib. iii.cap.v. Apol. contr Dict. Apost. omnes, &c. ult. tom. Dist. 2. Hoc est. These things considered, it may soon appear how faithfully and how well to De Consecr. his purpose M. Harding allegeth this place of St Augustine: Hoc est, quod dicimus, &c.6: “This is it that we say, which we go about by all means to prove, that the sacrifice of the church is made of two things, and standeth of two things; of the visible kind (or nature) of the elements, and of the invisible flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; of the sacrament, the outward holy sign, and the thing of the sacrament, which is the body of Christ." Hereof M. Harding gathereth that the body of Christ lieth hidden under the accidents. St Augustine's words be true; but M. Harding with his guesses is much deceived. For of this word specie he concludeth that the substance of bread is gone, and nothing remaining but only accidents; and of this word invisibili he gathereth that Christ's body is there really inclosed. And so he maketh a commentary far beside his text. Hieron. ad Concil. Nic. 11. Act. iii. Angelom. in 1 Reg. cap. xxii. But what would he have said, if he had seen these words of St Hierome: Venit Philippus; ostendit ei Jesum, qui clausus latebat in litera: "Philip came, and shewed him Jesus, that lay hidden in the letter?" Or these words in the second council of Nice: Christus ipse habitat in ossibus mortuorum3: "Christ himself dwelleth in dead men's bones?" Or these of Angelomus: Deus Pater Filium suum unigenitum... in litera legis, Judæis nescientibus, absconditum habuit: “God the Father had his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hidden in the letter of the law, the Jews not knowing it?" Would he of these words conclude that Christ is really hidden either in dead men's bones, or in the prophet Esay, or in the letter of the law? Certainly St Augustine speaketh not one word, neither here nor elsewhere, neither of accidents without subject, nor of any real presence. And, albeit his words here be not very dark, yet in other places both often and plainly he expoundeth himself. For thus he saith: Mysteria omnia interioribus oculis videnda Tractat. 46. sunt, id est, spiritualiter1o: "All mysteries must be considered with the inner eyes, August. citat. that is to say, spiritually." And again: In sacramentis aliud videtur, aliud intelligitur11: "In sacraments we see one thing, and we understand another thing." So Chrysost in Chrysostom, speaking of the water of baptism: Ego non aspectu judico ea, quæ videntur 12: "The things that be seen in baptism I consider not with my bodily August. in a Beda. 1 Cor. X. 7. σavTOS.-Exempl. Synod. Theodor. in Concil. Nie. II. Act. III. in Concil. Stud. Labb. et Cossart. Lut. Par. 1671-2. Tom. VII. col. 184.] [Angelom. Strom. in Lib. Reg. 1. cap. xx. in Mag. Biblioth. Vet. Patr. Col. Agrip. 1618-22. Tom. IX. Pars 1. p. 724; where habuerat.] [10 These words are not in the place referred to, But see August. Op. In Johan. Evang. cap. vi. Tractat. xxvi. Tom. III. Pars 11. cols. 493, &c., for the repeated expression of a similar idea. ] [ Id. Serm. cclxxii. Tom. V. col. 1104; where in eis.] [12 Chrysost. Op. In Epist. 1. ad Cor. Hom, vii. Tom. X. p. 51.] ad Rom. Lib. eye." So likewise Origen: Bene... circumcisionem signum appellavit,... quia et [in] ipsa aliud videbatur,... aliud intelligebatur 13: "He called circumcision rightly Species. a sign; for that in it one thing was seen, and another thing was understood." Orig. in Epist. Thus in sacraments we see one thing with our eye, and another thing with our iv. cap. iv. mind. With our bodily eye we see the bread: with our faith we see the body of Christ. Thus the sacrament consisteth of two parts: of the which the one is before our eyes, the other in heaven; and so the one visible, and the other invisible. So saith St Augustine: Non [oportet] esse contentum superficie literæ, August. sed ad intelligentiam pervenire11: "We may not stand content with the outward vers. Leg. et sight of the letter, but must go further unto the meaning." St Augustine meaneth. cap. v. not by these words that the understanding of the scriptures lieth really hidden under the letter. He himself better expoundeth his own meaning in this wise: In veteri testamento occultabatur novum, quia occulte significabatur 15: "The new August. de testament was hidden in the old, because it was secretly (or invisibly) signified in Donatist. the old." contr. Ad Proph. Lib. Bapt. contr. Lib. i. cap. XV. Now let us examine the ground of M. Harding's guesses. St Augustine nameth visibilem speciem the visible kind of the elements; ergo, saith M. Harding, he meaneth only the accidents or outward forms of bread and wine, and not the substance. The weakness of this conclusion proceedeth of the misunderstanding of the terms. For St Augustine in this place useth not this word species for the outward shew, but for the very substance of the thing itself. So St Ambrose saith twice together in one place: Sermo Dei species mutat elemen- Ambros. De torum 16: "The word of God changeth the kinds of the elements." And again: cap. ix. Ante benedictionem... alia species nominatur 17: "Before the consecration it is called another kind." In these and other like places M. Harding cannot well say that species signifieth an accident or outward shew. iis qui init. Johan. Neither doth this word "visible" import any such external form as is here imagined; but only excludeth the body of Christ, which is in heaven, invisible to our bodily eyes, and visible only to the eyes of our faith. And so the water in baptism is called forma visibilis, "a visible kind, or element," according to the general definition of all sacraments. So St Augustine saith: Aliud Judæi habe- August. in bant, aliud nos; sed specie visibili, quod tamen...idem significaret 18: "The Jews Tractat. 26. had one thing (for their sacrament), and we another; indeed of another visible form or kind, which notwithstanding signified the same thing that our sacrament doth signify." Likewise he saith: Quod videtur speciem habet corporalem: quod August. citat. intelligitur fructum habet spiritualem 19: "The thing that we see hath a corporal . shew; but the thing that we understand hath fruit spiritual." And in this sense Chrysostom saith of the sacrament of baptism: Christus in sensibilibus intelligi- Chrysost. in bilia nobis tradidit 20: "Christ in sensible things hath given us things spiritual." a Beda. 1 Cor. Matt. Hom. 83. By these we see both M. Harding's gross error, and also for what cause the old godly fathers call Christ's body invisible; that is, for that, being in heaven, we see it with our faith, with our mind, and with the eyes of our understanding. Neither may M. Harding of this word "invisible" reason thus, as he seemeth to do: Christ's body is invisible; ergo, it lieth hidden under accidents. For St Ambrose, in like phrase of words, speaketh thus of baptism: Sacri fontis unda Ambros, de nos abluit: sanguis Domini nos redemit. Alterum igitur invisibile, alterum visibile Lib. ¡¡i. testimonium sacramento consequimur spirituali21: "The water of the holy font hath washed us: Christ's blood hath redeemed us. Therefore by a spiritual sacrament we obtain two testimonies; the one invisible, the other visible." Here St Ambrose saith, Christ's blood in baptism is invisible. Yet we may not con [13 Orig. Op. Par. 1733-59. Comm. in Epist. ad Rom. Lib. IV. cap. iv. Tom. IV. p. 525.] [14 August. Op. Contr. Advers. Leg. et Proph. Lib. II. cap. v. 19. Tom. VIII. col. 591; where ad interiora intelligentiæ.] [15 Id. De Bapt. contr. Donatist. Lib. 1. cap. xv. 24. Tom. IX. col. 92; where in eo ipso occultabatur.] [16 ...non valebit Christi sermo, ut species mutet elementorum? &c.-Ambros. Op. Par. 1686-90. cap. ix. 52. Tom. II. col. 339.] [17 Id. ibid. 54.] [18 Aliud illi, aliud nos, &c.-August. Op. in Johan. Evang. cap. vi. Tractat. xxvi. 12. Tom. III. Pars II. col. 499.] [19 Id. Serm. cclxxii. Tom. V. col. 1104; where spiritalem.] [20 Chrysost. Op. In Matt. Hom. lxxxii. Tom. VII. p. 787.] [21 Ambros. Op. De Spir. Sanct. Lib. III. cap. x. 68. Tom. II. col. 678; where spiritali.] Spirit. Sanct. clude thereof that Christ's blood is hidden under the accidents or shews of water. Orig. in Luc. So Origen saith: Baptismus Johannis videbatur; Christi baptismus est invisibilis1: "John's baptism was seen; but Christ's baptism is invisible." Hom. 24. Cypr.de Cœn. And, notwithstanding all these things be plain to any man that hath eyes to see, yet, that the weakness and folly of these shifts may thoroughly appear, let M. Harding shew us wherein and in what respect his naked shew of forms and accidents can be the sacrament of Christ's body. For thus he saith, and doubleth, and repeateth the same, and maketh it the stay and ground of this whole treaty. The sign or signification of this sacrament, as St Cyprian saith, standeth in Raban. Maur, refreshing and feeding. So saith Rabanus Maurus: Quia panis corporis cor Lib. i. cap. [confirmat, ideo ille congruenter corpus Christi nuncupatur; et quia vinum sanguinem operatur in carne, ideo [illud] ad sanguinem Christi refertur3: "Because bread confirmeth the heart of the body, therefore it is conveniently called the body of Christ. And, because wine worketh blood in the flesh, therefore it hath relation to the blood of Christ." Likewise, because water washeth away the soil and Greg. Nyss. filth of the body, therefore, as Gregory Nyssene saith, "Christ appointed it to the sacrament of baptism, to signify the inward washing of our souls." xxxi. de Sanct. Baptism. Constant. ad Now, although M. Harding can say many things, yet this thing, I think, he will not say, that our bodies be fed with his shews and accidents. Or if he so Marc. Anton. Say, as indeed they are driven so to say, then will the very natural philosopher reprove his folly. For the philosopher saith, as indeed true it is: Ex iisdem nutrimur, et sumus: "We consist of the same things wherewith we are nourished.” Therefore, if M. Harding will say, the substance of our body is fed with accidents, then must he likewise say, the substance of our body doth stand of accidents. Hereof we may very well reason thus: The accidents or shews of bread and wine feed not our bodies, as Christ's body feedeth our souls; Ergo, the accidents and shews of bread and wine are not the sacraments Cypr.de Con. of Christ's body. Contrariwise, St Cyprian, Irenæus, Rabanus and other Iren. Lib. iv. ancient fathers say: The substance of the bread feedeth our body, &c.; Dom. cap. xxxiv. Raban. Lib. i. cap. xxxi. Ergo, the substance of the bread is the sacrament of Christ's body. And again, M. Harding, standing upon this simple ground, cannot possibly avoid many great inconveniences. For, if the shews and accidents be the sacrament, then forasmuch as in one bread there be many accidents, as the whiteness, the roundness, the breadth, the taste, &c., and every such accident is a sacrament, he can by no gloss or conveyance shift himself; but instead of one sacrament he must needs grant a number of sacraments, and, avoiding one figure, he must be driven to confess a great many figures. Touching St Basil, M. Harding seemeth to confess that his books are disordered, and that now set after consecration that sometimes was before; and yet he sheweth us not who hath wrought this treachery. I trow they have corrupted and falsified their own books. But Basil calleth the sacrament ȧvríruπov, that is, a sampler, a sign, or a token of Christ's body before the consecration; and so Damascenus, Euthymius, and one Epiphanius, and Marcus Ephesius, late writers, have expounded it. Here mark well, good reader, the niceness and curiosity of this people without cause. Sooner than they will confess, as the ancient catholic fathers do, that the sacrament is a figure of Christ's body, they are content to say: It is a sacrament [ Joannis baptisma videbatur, Christi baptismus invisibilis erat.-Orig. Op. Par. 1733-59. In Luc. Hom. xxiv. Tom. III. p. 961.] [ Panis dicitur propter nutrimentum vitæ. Cypr. Op. Oxon. 1682. De Cœn. Dom. (Arnold.) p. 40.] [ Raban. Maur. Op. Col. Agrip. 1626-7. De Instit. Cleric. Lib. 1. cap. xxxi. Tom. VI. p. 12; where corpus Christi congruenter, and vinum autem quia sanguinem.] [Gregor. Nyss. Op. Par. 1638. In Baptism. Christ. Tom. III. p. 369. See before, page 566.] [ Accidentia panis et vini... nutriendi virtutem per miraculum retinent, &c.-Confut. Cavill. in Ven. Euch. Sacr. Verit. Lut. 1552. Ad Object. 66. fol. 51.] [ Cypr. Op. De Con. Dom. (Arnold.) p. 40.] [? ...ἐκ τούτων [τὸ ποτήριον καὶ ὁ ἄρτος] δὲ αὔξει καὶ συνίσταται ἡ τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν ὑπόστα ois.-Iren. Op. Par. 1710. Contr. Hær. Lib. v. cap. ii. 3. p. 294.] [ Rab. Maur. Op. De Instit. Cleric. Lib. 1. cap. xxxi. Tom. VI. p. 11. See before, pages 571, 2.] [ See before, page 593.] before it be a sacrament; and so a figure before it be a figure. For how can the sacrament be a sacrament, or what can the bare bread signify before consecration? Or who appointed or commanded it so to signify? iis qui init. But to leave these M. Harding's new fantastical doctors, with their mystical expositions; St Ambrose in his time thought it no heresy to write thus: Ante Ambros. de consecrationem...alia species nominatur: post consecrationem corpus [Christi] signi- cap. ix. ficatur 10: "Before consecration it is called another kind: after consecration the body of Christ is signified." And again: In edendo et potando, corpus et san- Ambros. guinem [Christi], quæ pro nobis oblata sunt, significamus11: he saith not, Before consecration, but even in receiving the holy communion, which he calleth “eating and drinking, we signify the body and blood of Christ that were offered for us." Thus the old fathers called the sacrament a sign or a12 figure of Christ's body after it was consecrate. But before consecration neither did they ever call it so, notwithstanding these new doctors' judgments to the contrary, nor was there any cause why they should so call it. Yet were they not therefore counted sacramentaries, nor maintainers of false doctrine. And if it appear strange to any man that St Basil should call the 13 holy mysteries antitypa after consecration, let him understand that this learned father thought good by that word to note the great secret of that mystery, and to shew a distinct condition of present things from things to come. And this consideration the church seemeth to have had, which in public prayer, after holy mysteries received, Sabbato 4. temporum. Measis Septemb. 1 Cor. xi. is a figure of by the maketh this humble petition: Ut quæ nunc in 14 specie gerimus, certa rerum veritate capiamus 15: “That in the life to come we may take that in cer- Christ's body tain truth of things, which now we bear in shape or shew." Neither do the life to these words import any prejudice against the truth of the presence of Christ's body proved only in the sacrament; but they signify and utter the most principal truth of the same, portuise. when as, all outward form, shape, shew, figure, sampler, and cover taken away, we shall have the fruition of God himself in sight, face to face; not as it were through a glass, but so as he is in truth of his majesty. So this word antitypon, thus taken in St Basil, furthereth nothing at all the sacramentaries' false doctrine against the truth of the presence of Christ's body in the sacrament. THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. M. Harding, for fear of taking, altereth and shifteth himself into sundry forms; in like sort as the old poets imagine that one Proteus, a subtle fellow, in like case was wont to do. Among other his strange devices he saith, Christ's body is a figure of the life that is to come; and that he proveth only by his portuise, without any other further authority. But if a man would traverse this new exposition, how standeth M. Harding so well assured of the same? What scripture, what doctor, what council, what warrant hath he so to say? Verily, that Christ's natural body, being now immortal and glorious, should be a sign or a token of things to come, it were very strange and wonderful; but that bare forms and accidents should so signify, yet were that a wonder much more wonderful. The prayer that is uttered in the church is good and godly, and the meaning thereof very comfortable; that is, that, all veils and shadows being taken away, we may at last come to the throne of glory, and see God face to face. For in this life we are full of imperfections; and, as St Paul saith, "we know (ex 1 Cor. xiii. parte) unperfitly; we prophesy unperfitly. But, when that thing that is perfit shall come, then shall imperfection be abolished. Now we see as thorough a seeing-glass, in a riddle; but then we shall see face to face." Therefore St [10 Ambros. Op. Par. 1686-90. Lib. de Myst. cap. ix. 54. Tom. II. col. 339. See before, page 595.] [" Id. Comm. in Epist. ad Cor. 1. cap. xi. v. 26. Tom. II. Append. col. 149. See before, page 591.] [12 1565 omits a.] [13 Those, 1565, and H. A. 1564.] [14 H. A. 1564 omits in.] [15 Missal. ad Us. Eccles. Sar. 1527. Sabb. Quat. Temp. Postcom. fol. 133, 2.] |