Heb. iv. August. de But Chrysostom, entreating of the holy communion, saith unto the people: Accedamus ad Deum: "Let us come unto God.” "Here," saith M. Harding, "the sacrament by these words is called God." O, when will these men deal plainly and simply with their readers? M. Harding knoweth full well that he much abuseth this good old father, and reporteth of him that he never thought. He knoweth that we come to God, not by travail of body, or by shifting of places, but by inclining and bending our hearts unto God. So St Paul saith: "Let us go with boldness to the throne of grace." St Augustine, speaking of the sacrament of baptism, agreeth fully with these words of Chrysostom: Ad medicum Christum, hoc est, ad percipiendum Remiss. Lib. sacramentum salutis æternæ ... portantur1: “Children are carried unto Christ the i. cap. xviii. physician, that is to say, to receive (baptism, which is) the sacrament of everlasting salvation." By these plain words of St Augustine it appeareth, that coming to baptism is coming to Christ. Yet may not M. Harding conclude thereof, that the water of baptism was called Christ. August. adv. Jud. cap. i. Chrysost. Hom. 12. Our coming unto Christ is believing in Christ. St Augustine saith: Quid est accedite, nisi credite?... Accedite ad eum, qui in vestris auribus prædicatur. Accedite ad eum, qui ante oculos vestros glorificatur. Ambulando non laborabitis. Ibi enim acceditis, ubi creditis2: "What is come, but believe? Come unto him that is preached in your ears. Come unto him that is glorified before your For there ye come, where ye believe." eyes. Ye shall have no pain in going. So Chrysostom: Nunquid longe est a te Deus, ut vadas ad locum aliquem? De Mul. Can. Non includitur loco; sed semper est in proximo3: "Is God far away from thee, that thou shouldest need to remove to some place to come unto him? God is not contained in any place, but is evermore at hand." Naz. de Pœnit. August. Likewise saith Nazianzene: Accede fidens ad Christum; riga pedes ejus1: "Come boldly unto Christ, and wash his feet." Therefore St Augustine saith: Accedant Lib. xxxiii. ad Jesum, non carne, sed corde; non corporis præsentia, sed fidei potentia”: “Let them come unto Jesus, not with their flesh, but with their heart; not by presence of body, but by the power of faith." contr. Faust. cap. i. Thus we come unto Christ in baptism, in God's word, in the sermon, and in the holy communion, not by moving of the body or changing of places, but by the devotion of the heart and travail of the mind. Now, that the reader himself may see some part of M. Harding's courteous dealing in this behalf, it shall not be amiss briefly to touch certain other words of Chrysostom that immediately went before; by which words he seemeth of purpose to teach us where we ought to seek for Christ, and by what ways and means we may come unto him. His words be these: Aquila in hac vita facti ad ipsum cœlum evolemus, &c.6: "Being made eagles in this life, let us fly up into heaven, or rather above the heavens. For where as the carcase is, there are the eagles. The carcase is our Lord's body in respect of his death. But he calleth us eagles, to shew us that whoso will come near to that body must mount on high, and have no dealing with the earth, not to bow downward, or creep9 beneath, but ever to soar aloft, and to behold the Sun of Justice, and to have a quick eye in our heart." Thus St Chrysostom teacheth us, both where Christ resteth in the glory of his Father, and by what means we may come unto him, and with what eyes we may behold him. Then, having thus advanced 10 our minds into heaven, he saith: Propter hoc corpus, &c.: "For this body's sake (that I see at the right hand of [ August. Op. Par. 1679-1700. De Pecc. Mer. et Remiss. Lib. I. cap. xviii. 23. Tom. X. cols. 13, 4.] [ Id. adv. Jud. cap. ix. 14. Tom. VIII. col. 40.] [3 Μὴ γὰρ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, ἵνα ἀπέλθῃς εἰς τόπον; Θεὸς ἀεὶ ἐγγύς ἐστιν.—Chrysost. Op. Par. 1718-38. De Chanan. Hom. Tom. III. p. 442. Jewel has quoted the Latin version.] [The editor has failed to discover the passage intended.] [5 August.Op.Contr. Faust. Lib. XXXIII. cap.viii. Tom. VIII. col. 468. See before, page 740, note 7.] [6 Chrysost. Op. In Epist. 1. ad Cor. Hom. xxiv. Tom. X. p. 216. See before, page 12. The passage proceeds: καὶ μηδὲν πρὸς τὴν γῆν κοινὸν ἔχειν, μηδὲ κάτω σύρεσθαι καὶ ἕρπειν, ἀλλ ̓ ἄνω πέτεσθαι διηνεκῶς, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον τῆς δια καιοσύνης ἐνορᾷν, καὶ ὀξυδερκὲς τὸ ὄμμα τῆς διανοίας ἔχειν.] [ Flee, 1565.] [ Nor, 1565.] [ Or to creep, 1565, 1609.] God) I am no more a prisoner: I am no longer dust and ashes." Touching the sacrament, by these most plain words he calleth it bread: for thus he saith, even in the same homily: Quid significat panis? Corpus Christill: "What doth the bread (of the sacrament) signify?" He answereth: "The body of Christ." He saith not, The bread is Christ; but, "The bread signifieth the body of Christ.” Yet, notwithstanding, M. Harding saith that these words, accedamus ad Deum, import as much as "Let us come to the sacrament;" and thereof imagineth that the sacrament by plain words is called God. But indeed that holy father by these words carrieth us so far above M. Harding's God, as the spirit is above the body, or as heaven is above the earth. For he teacheth us to come to Christ's body, not as lying presently before our eyes, but as being in the glory of God in heaven. cap. ix. And lest this sense taken of Chrysostom should seem over strange, this place of St Ambrose, who lived in the same time, and agreeth with him thoroughly in doctrine, De iis qui Mys- may seem to lead us to the same: Quid edamus, quid bibamus, alibi teriis initiantur, tibi per prophetam Spiritus sanctus expressit, dicens: Gustate et videte, quoniam suavis est Dominus: beatus vir qui sperat in eo: in illo sacramento Christus est, quia corpus est Christi 12: "What we ought to eat, and what we ought to drink, the Holy Ghost hath expressed by the prophet in another place, saying: Taste and see how that our Lord is sweet: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' In that sacrament is Christ, because there is the body of Christ." Here St Ambrose, (245) referring those words of the psalm to The two the sacrament, calleth it Lord, and that Lord in whom the man that trusteth is forty-fifth blessed, who is God. Psal. xxxiv. 6 THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. hundred and untruth. For St Ambrose applieth these words unto Christ himself, and sacrament. Paulin. To say that Christ is either in the scriptures, or in the manna, or in the not unto the sacrament of baptism, or in the sacrament of his body, it is no new phrase or manner of speech, but commonly used of the ancient fathers. St Hierome saith: Christus clausus latebat in litera 13: "Christ lay hidden in the letter." St Augus- Hieron. ad tine saith: [Pi] in manna Christum intellexerunt 14: "The godly in manna under- August. de stood Christ." Again he saith: Ut petra erat Christus propter firmitatem; ita unit. manna erat Christus, quia descendit de cœlo 15: "As the rock was Christ in respect for Faust. of constancy and steadiness; even so was the manna Christ, because it came i down from heaven." August. contr. St Hierome saith: Lapis ille, qui erat ad caput Jacob, Christus erat.... Lapis Hieron. in ille Christus est 16: "The stone that lay under Jacob's head was Christ. That Psal. cxxxiii. stone is Christ." 2. Origen saith: Mare baptismus est: nubes Spiritus sanctus est: agnus Salvator Orig. in est": "The sea is baptism: the cloud is the Holy Ghost: the lamb is the 18 Cant. Hom. Saviour." And, to be short, a doctor, although not very ancient, yet of M. Harding's own side, one that wrote the "Fort of Faith," and therefore in this case may not justly be refused, writeth thus: Christus vendebatur in Josepho, suspen- Fortal. Fid. debatur in botro, crucifigebatur in serpente 19: "Christ was sold in Joseph, hanged Lib. i. in the cluster of grapes,, and crucified in the serpent." All these and such other like phrases of speech must be taken, not of any [" See before, page 538, note 6.] [12 Ambros. Op. Par. 1686-90. Lib. de Myst. cap. ix. 58. Tom. II. col. 341.] [13 Hieron. Op. Par. 1693-1706. Epist. 1. ad Paulin. ii. Tom. IV. Pars II, col. 571; where Jesum qui clausus.] [14 August. Op. Serm. ccclii. De Util. Agend. Poen. ii. cap. i. 3. Tom. V. col. 1365.] [15 Si enim petra Christus propter firmitatem, cur non et manna Christus, tamquam panis vivus qui de cœlo descendit ?-Id. contr. Faust. Lib. XII. cap. xxix. Tom. VIII. col. 241.] [16 Hieron. Op. Breviar. in Psalt. Peal. cxxxiii. real or fleshly being, according to the shew of the letter, but only as in a sacrament or in a mystery. But M. Harding will say: "The sacrament of St Ambrose is called Lord." This is another untruth, and like the rest of M. Harding's proofs. Christ, sitting now at the right hand of God, is the bread and food of life: thither St Ambrose calleth us: there he biddeth us "to taste and see that the Lord is sweet and gracious." And he addeth immediately: Beatus vir qui sperat in eo: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Notwithstanding it might very well serve his purpose, yet I think M. Harding will not say, The man is blessed that trusteth in the sacrament. For so to say, as it shall hereafter appear, it were great blasphemy. And that St Ambrose meant this not of the sacrament, but of the body of Christ itself that is represented by the sacrament, it is plain by other his words, both going before and also immediately following after. A little before, in the same chapter, he writeth thus: Ante benedictionem verborum cœlestium alia species tiantur Myst. nominatur; post consecrationem corpus [Christi] significatur1: "Before the blessing of the heavenly words it is called another kind; but after consecration the body of Christ is signified." Ambros. de illis qui inicap. ix. The words next following in the same sentence are these: Non ergo corporalis esca, sed spiritualis est2: "Therefore Christ's body is not corporal food (to be received into the body), but spiritual food;" that is to say, to be received with the spirit. Which words M. Harding, as his manner is, thought it best skill to dissemble. God quicken the inward senses of his understanding, that he may taste and see that the Lord is sweet and gracious! M. HARDING. THE SEVENTH DIVISION. ad Corin. Agreeably to this saith St Augustine, in a sermon De Verbis Evangelii, as Beda reciteth: Qualem vocem Domini audistis invitantis nos? Quis [vos] In collectaneis invitavit ? Quos invitavit ? Et quis præparavit? Invitavit Dominus inx. cap. prioris servos, et præparavit eis cibum seipsum. Quis audeat manducare Dominum suum? Et tamen ait: Qui manducat me, vivat3 propter me4: "What manner of 5 voice is it that ye have heard of our Lord inviting and bidding us to the feast? Who hath invited? Whom hath he invited? And who hath made preThese words paration? The Lord hath invited the servants, and hath prepared* himself to be meat for them. Who dareth be so bold as to eat his Lord? And yet he saith: ‘He that eateth me shall live for cause of me.' are spoken, not of the sacrament, but of Christ's body itself repre sacrament. 999 Cyrillus accounteth (246) the sacrament for Christ, and God the Word, and for sented by the God in this saying: Qui carnem Christi manducat, vitam habet æter- In Johan. Lib. nam. Habet enim hæc caro Dei Verbum, quod naturaliter vita est. iv.cap. xv. forty-sixth Propterea dicit: Quia ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die. Ego enim, dixit, id Cyril speak- est, corpus meum quod comedetur, resuscitabo eum. Non enim alius ipse est, quam caro sua, &c.7: "He that eateth the flesh of Christ hath life everlasting. For this flesh hath the Word of God, which naturally is life. sacrament of Therefore saith he that I will raise him in the last day. For I, quoth he, that is to Christ's body. say, my body which shall be eaten, shall raise him up again; for he is no other than The two hundred and untruth. For eth these words of Christ's body itself, and not of the his flesh, &c." THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. John vi. It is true that St Augustine saith that Christ prepared himself to be meat for us. For Christ himself saith: "He that eateth me shall live through me." Neither was it so needful for proof hereof to borrow St Augustine's words out of Beda: he might have found the same meaning, both in St Augustine himself, and also in other old fathers in sundry places. St Augustine writeth thus: Panis secund. Luc. est, et panis est, et panis est, Deus Pater, Deus Filius, et Deus Spiritus sanctus.... August. de Serm. 29. ['Ambros. Op. Par. 1686-90. Lib. de Myst. cap. ix. 54. Tom. II. col. 339.] [2 Id. ibid. 58. col. 341.] [3 Vivet, 1565, 1609, and H. A. 1564.] [August. in Ven. Bed. Op. Col. Agrip. 1612. Ad Cor. 1. cap. x. Tom. VI. col. 364; where quid præparavit, and vivit.] [5 A, 1565, 1609, and H. A. 1564.] [ H. A. 1564 omits it.] [ Cyril. Alex. Op. Lut. 1638. In Johan. Evang. Lib. IV. cap. ii. Tom. IV. p. 363.] Deus, qui tibi dat, nihil melius quam se tibi dat8: "It is bread, it is bread, and it is bread (meaning thereby not the sacrament, but the spiritual bread of life), God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. God, that giveth it unto thee, giveth thee no better thing than himself." So St Hierome: [Sancti] vescuntur Hieron. ad cœlesti pane, et saturantur omni verbo Dei, eundem habentes Dominum, quem et adv. Error. cibum: "Holy men eat the heavenly bread, and are filled with every word of sol. God, having the same Lord that is their meat." Pammach. Johan. Hiero Job. Lib. vii. cap. iv. So St Gregory: Præsepe...natus implevit, qui cibum semetipsum mortalium Gregor. in mentibus præbuit 10: "Being born, he filled the manger, that gave himself meat to the minds or souls of men." ." In this sense, and none otherwise, Cyrillus saith: "I, that is to say, my body that shall be eaten, shall raise him up again. For Christ is none other than his flesh." All these sayings be true, and out of question. Yet notwithstanding that M. Harding would gather hereof is not true; that is, that either St Augustine or any of these holy fathers ever called the sacrament either Lord, or God, or Christ himself. Johan. ducat mente, non qui pre St Augustine in divers places teacheth us that Christ's body itself and the sacraments11 thereof are sundry things. And the difference he openeth in this sort: "That Christ's body is received inwardly with the mind; but the sacrament August. in is outwardly pressed and bruised with the tooth 12" And therefore he calleth the Tractat. 26. sacrament panem Domini, "the bread of the Lord." But Christ himself he Qui mancalleth panem Dominum 13, "the bread that is our Lord." And, expounding mit dente. these words of Christ, "Give us this day our daily bread," he saith thus: "This August. in daily bread we may understand either for the sacrament of Christ's body, which Tractat. 59. we receive every day (as then the whole people used to do), or for that spiritual Serm. Dom. food (of Christ's body itself) of which our Lord saith, 'Work ye the meat that Lib. ii. perisheth not;' and again, I am that bread of life that came from 14 heaven 15."" Here we see another notable difference between Christ's body itself and the sacrament of his body. Johan. August. de in Mont. Infant. in 1 Cor. x. And, if it had pleased M. Harding to have taken better view of his places, thus he might have seen St Augustine himself, even in the same place, expound himself. For thus he saith: Nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum, tunc unumquen- August. ad que fidelium corporis et sanguinis Domini participem fieri, quando in baptismate citat. a Beda membrum Christi efficitur; nec alienari ab illius panis calicisque consortio, etiamsi, antequam panem illum comedat et calicem bibat, de hoc seculo in unitate corporis Christi constitutus abscedat. Sacramenti enim illius participatione ac beneficio non privatur, quando ipse hoc, quod illud sacramentum significat, invenit 16: "No man may any wise doubt but that every faithful man is then made partaker of the body and blood of Christ, when in baptism he is made a member of Christ; and that he is not put from the fellowship of that bread and cup, although he depart this life in the unity of Christ's body, before he eat of that bread or drink of that cup. For he loseth not the partaking and benefit of that sacrament, so long as he findeth the thing (that is, the body of Christ itself) which is signified by that sacrament." Here St Augustine teacheth us, that a faithful man is partaker of Christ's body itself, yea, although he receive not the sacrament of his body. And as St Augustine, in these words here alleged by M. Harding, saith, Christus præparavit cibum seipsum; so, writing upon St John, he saith thus: [ August. Op. Par. 1679-1700. De Verb. Evang. Luc. xi. Serm. cv. 4. Tom. V. cols. 542, 3.] [ Hieron. Op. Par. 1693-1706. Ad Pammach. Epist. xxxviii. adv. Error. Johan. Jerosol. Tom. IV. Pars II. col. 324.] [10 Gregor. Magni Papæ I. Op. Par. 1705. Moral. Lib. VII. in cap. vi. B. Job. 7. Tom. I. col. 215; where mentibus mortalium.] [11 Sacrament, 1565, 1609.] [12 August. Op. In Johan. Evang. cap. vi. Tractat. xxvi. 12. Tom. III. Pars II. col. 499; where manducat in corde.] [13 Id. ibid. in cap. xiii. Tractat. lix. 1. col. 663.] [14 Came down from, 1565.] [15 Panis quotidianus . . . dictus est. . . aut pro sacramento corporis Christi, quod quotidie accipimus; aut pro spiritali cibo, de quo idem Dominus dicit, Operamini escam quæ non corrumpitur: et illud, Ego sum panis vitæ, qui de cœlo descendi.— Id. de Serm. Dom. in Mont. Lib. 11. cap. vii. 25. Tom. III. Pars II. col. 209.] [16 Ven. Bed. Op. Ad Cor. 1. cap. x. Tom. VI. col. 365. Conf. Fulgent. Op. Par. 1623. ad calc. Epist. de Baptism. Æthiop. col. 587. See before, page 132, note 2.] Johan. Tractat. 7. August. in [Christus] invitavit... nos ad evangelium suum; et ipse cibus noster est ; quo nihil dulcius, sed si quis habeat palatum... in corde1: "Christ hath called us unto his gospel; and he himself is our meat; than which meat there is nothing sweeter, if a man have wherewith to taste it in his heart." August. Confess. Lib. i. So again he saith: Deus panis intus est animæ meæ2: "God is the inward bread (not to enter into my bodily mouth, but) of my soul." Thus we see the one part of M. Harding's tale is true, that Christ himself is our bread; but the other part is untrue, that the sacrament is that bread. And it were a strange form of reasoning to say thus: Christ is our food: we eat him with our soul and with our spirit, and live by him; ergo, the sacrament in St Augustine's time was called Lord and God. The error and falsehood3 of this argument, besides sundry other infirmities, standeth in the equivocation or double taking of this word "eating," which hath relation sometime to the material mouth of our body, sometime to faith, which is the spiritual mouth of our soul. St John saith: "Christ hath washed us with his blood." And St Bernard saith: Lavemur in sanguine ejus1: "Let us bathe ourest, Serm. 3. selves in the blood of Christ." Yet M. Harding may not hereof conclude, that the water of baptism indeed and verily is that blood. Rev. i. Sup. Missus He lived eleven hundred years M. HARDING. THE EIGHTH DIVISION. No man more expressly calleth the sacrament by the name of God than St Bernard in his godly sermon De Cœna Domini ad Petrum Presbyterum, where he after Christ, saith thus: Comedunt... angeli Verbum de Deo natum: comedunt homines Vercorruption of bum foenum factum5: "The angels eat the Word born of God: men eat the Word in the great the church. made hay;" meaning hereby the sacrament, which he calleth "the Word made hay,” |