YOu haue already heard enough for your beliefe , and the solemne mysteriousnesse of this day , from the Gospell read vnto you . To speake more , were to derogate from the reuerence of the one , and the authority of the other : neither is it possible for me in this part , to speake any thing equall or second vnto the nature of a subiect so transcendent , which poses the conceit and language both of men and Angels . A God borne man at Christemas , crucified on good Friday , & early this day in the morning againe raised from death in our flesh , to farre more glory and maiesty , then if we should on a sudden see the Sunne in fullheate and lustre strooke out of darknesse , and like a Bridegroome reioycing to runne his course . I can onely say in astonishment , O the height , O the depth , O the vnsearchablenesse of Gods wayes , iudgements , and knowledge ! Thus I must say when I begin ; and when I haue done , I haue againe nothing to conclude , but wonder .

In the meane while therefore , since I must break silence , I haue made choice of a lower Treatise , neither vnsutable to the time , and agreeing to the present occasion , concerning the presence or Christ in the Sacrament : This is , saith hee , my body ; This is my bloud of the new Testament . These , and the like Sacramentall words , when they fell first from the lips of our Sauiour , seem'd strange : but they haue since that time in the mutinous proiecting spirits of later age , growne vp with more terrible effects ; in so much as the history of the Sacrament is a history of bloud , fitter to efferate mens minds vnto a battell , then to inuite them by the rehearsall vnto a sacrifice of peace and thanksgiuing . The Chapters are diuided with so many Schismes , and pend with swords and firebrands-slaughters , warres and rumours of warre are the Antichristian newes . So that when we cast backe our consideration hereon , wee cannot be without horrour ; to see the curse of them in the Prophet fallen vpon the most wofull estate of Christendome . Let their table be a snare before them , and their prosperity their ruine . Concerning this body and this bloud of our Eucharist , myriads of mens bodies haue bin torne and broken , and vtterly confounded almost into no elements ; and of mens bloud hath bin shed enough to colour the Ocean : Boundlesse herein I might be , if I had pleasure in remembrance of ruine ; but for this present I shall deliuer vnto you something else : and especially , the meaning of Christs Sacramentall words from himselfe and his Apostles , who likely should be their owne best Commentaries . What saith Christ vnto the people , and vnto his Disciples in the sixt Chapter of the Euangelist Saint Iohn : t is the most proper Gospell for the Sacrament , and therefore I will read it in part vnto you , beginning at the 24 Verse . Now when the people saw that Iesus was not there , neither his Disciples , they also tooke shipping , and came to Capernaum seeking to Iesus . And when they had found him on the other side of the Sea , they said vnto him , Rabbi , when camest thou hither ? Iesus answered them and said : Verily , verily , I say vnto you ; yee seeke me not because ye saw the miracles , but because yee ate of the loues , and were filled . Labour not for the meat which perisheth , but for the meat that endureth vnto euerlasting life , which the Sonne of man shall giue vnto you : For him hath God the Father sealed . This is to you the worke of God , that yee beleeue on him whom hee hath sent . I am the bread of life , hee that commeth to me shall not hunger , and he that beleeueth in me shall neuer thirst . I am the liuing bread , I am the bread that came downe from heauent : the bread that I will giue is my flesh , which I will giue for the life of the world . Then the Iewes stroue among themselues saying ; How can this man giue vs his flesh to eat ? Then Iesus said vnto them , Verily , verily I say vnto yau ; Except ye eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood , yee haue no life in you ; Whosoeuer eateth my flesh and drinketh my blond , hath eternall life , and I will raise him vp at the last day . For my flesh is meat indeed , and my blood is drinke indeed . Hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud , dwelleth in mee , and I in him . As the liuing Father hath sent me , so liue I by the Father ; and hee that eateth me . euen he shall liue by me . This is the bread which came downe from heauen : not as your Fathers haue eaten Manna , and are dead . Hee that eateth this bread shall liue for euer . These things spake hee in the Synagogue as he taught in Capernaum : Many therefore of his Disciples , when they heard this , said ; This is an hard saying , who can heare it ? But Iesus knowing in himselfe , that his Disciples murmured at this , said vnto them , Doth this offend you ? What then if yee should see the Sonne of man ascend vp where he was before ? It is the spirit that quickneth , the flesh profiteth nothing . The words that I speake vnto you are spirit and life . Parallell vnto this place are many others , which I will also repear , because they agree to make vp the same Catholique sence and doctrine . Thus we read in Saint Luke the 22. Chap. at the 19 , 20. and 17. Verses : He tooke the Cup and gaue thankes , and said ; Take this and drinke it among you . And he took bread , & when he had giuen thanks , he brake it , and gaue to them saying ; This is my body which is giuen for you , doe this in remembrance of mee . Againe , Saint Paul in the first to the Corinthians , the 11. Chapter , beginning at the 23. Verse . For I haue receiued of the Lord , that which I haue also deliuered vnto you ; to wit , that the Lord Iesus in the night that hee was betrayed , tooke bread : and when he had giuen thankes hee brake it , and said ; Take , eat , this is my Body which is broken for you ; This doe in remembrance of me ; For as often as ye shall eat this bread , and drinke this cup , yee shew the Lords death till hee come . And according to this institution and paraphrase , wee haue also the phrase of the same Apostle in the 3. to the Romans . To be iustified by the blood , that is , by Faith in the blood , and Passion of Christs righteousnesse , saith he , by the Faith of Iesus Christ , vnto all , and vpon all that beleeue , and are iustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus , whom God hath set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood , to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenesse of sinnes , that are passed , through the patience of God .

And so this Apostolicall and Euaagelicall foundation being laid with firme and choice stones , from the most sufficient quarry of the new Testament ; a shame it were to build vpon it a doctrine of stubble and vncertaine superstition .

But without Prouerbe and Allegory , now briefly to resolue the doubt , that we neither murmure or striue amongst our selues , as did the Iewes , or fall backe from Christ with too much astonishment , as did they , and at that first time many of his Disciples . The bread and wine in which we Communicate , is in Spirit and Truth ; and forth-shewing , and remembrance , and by faith in his Passion , to vs the body and blood of Christ : if we beleeue and remember assuredly that 1624 yeares since Christ was borne for our redemption , crucified for our sinnes , and rose againe for our glory : This is the doctrine taught by Christ , by his Apostles , and peraduenture by all the greatest Doctors of the Church in the first thousand yeeres after them . I am not willingly ouerbold of any assurance and thtrefore I say peraduenture , though a hard taske it would be for an ordinary man to conuince vs if we omitted the modesty of that aduerbe , excepting some Diuines , who in all ages are like those some Orators of whom Philo Iudaeus speakes in this manner , {αβγδ} . They blow vp their vulgar readers and auditors into strange imaginations ; they leauen their Treatise with phantafies , and obscure the truth in a heape and aumber of toyles and muthologies . Take away these excesses of Eloquence and Rhetorike ; and againe , take away some few Spiders who from the leafe and blossome of Scripture chose to gather poyson where the Bee suckes hony : According to that of Tertullian : Nec periclitor dicere ipsas quoque Scripturas , sic esse ex Dei voluntate dispositas vt hoereticis materias subministreut cùm legam oportere hoereses esse , quae sine Scripturis esse nonpossent . And then the sincere primitiue antiquity of the Church shall deliuer the same simple truth , which I haue before related from the fountaine of the Gospell . Let Saint Austen for breuity be heard in the name of the rest . Si flagitium aut facinus videtur iubere Scriptura ne dubites figuratam locutionem . If the Scripture ( saith he ) seeme to command any crime or wickednesse , doubt not but the speech is figuratiue . It saith , Except you eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood , ye haue no life in you . Here is horridneffe and impiety in shew commanded ; therefore it is a figuratiue speech willing vs to communicate in the passion of our Sauiour , and remember with desire and profit , that his flesh was for our sake crucified and wounded vpon the Crosse . Againe , Non dubitauit Dominus . Our Lord said this is my body , when he deliuered the signe of it ; and this third place of his is most eminent . Huius sacrificij caro & sanguis ante aduêntum Christi per victimas similitudinum promittebatur , in passione Christi per ipsam veritatem reddebatur , post ascènsum Christi per Sacramentum memoriae celebratur . The flesh and the blood of this Sacrifice ( saith he ) before the comming of Christ was shadowed in offerings of type and similitude ; in the passion of Christ himselfe was giuen in very truth of our flesh and blood : after the Ascension of Christ we yet still celebrate the same sacrifice in a Sacrament of remembrance . Should we from the times of Saint Ansten fall downe vnto Alfred the famous founder of our Vniuersity . Here we shall find a Sainted and most learned man , Iohannes Scotus Erigena , writing two books in confirmation of the self same Diuinity : and in the reigne of King Aethelrede , we yet read Abbot Alfric , though a man papall enough , still instructing his Saxon cure , that Christ is no otherwise corporally this bread of the Sacrament in the new Testament , then he was in the old , Manna , a Lambe , a Lyon , or a Rocke : yea , and their later Scotus also , sauing the authority of the Roman Church in Pope Innocentius the thirds new Lateranc reed , Confesseth our doctrine to be intellectum facilem & veriorem secundum apparentiam ; the more apparantly true and easie sense of Scripture . Besides if we goe vnto their traditionall arguments of sleshy liue apparitions in the Sacrament , Alexander de Ales , as a thing notorious to the whole world , cannot refuse to say that many of them were done , humana procuratione & sorte Diabolica , by knaues imposture and diuelish magique . From all which we may boldly say in the confidence of an old English treatise to this same purpose . Here ye may see that this new determination about the sacred Dost is nought , for it reuerseth and grieueth the faith and the tradition of the greatest and the best men that euer were : and also it is peruerting of the customable beliefe continued generally in Christs Church into the vnbinding of Sathanas , and that continueth ghit in faithfull men , and shall into doomysday .

If the Romanists had eares to heare either God or good men , they would shame to play the Manachies with Christs bodie , and contract him to the creatures of bread and wine , to enchaunt him to a residence in euery abiect , sordid , and contemptuous Friets Oaste ; to make him solid in wine , liquid in bread , to be together flesh and blood both in the one and the other . But t is not impossible for their fancy to conceiue this and much more , who could spy out the traitor Garnets head and face in a straw . And for their impiety , their couetous and ambitious atheisme , they dare more T is but Alchimy to transubstantiate Christ : they also diuide him for lazie respect , as t is most probable , seuering the blood from the body in the halfe Communion of lay men ; with pretence lest their long beards should peraduenture draw vp some drop of a Sacrament : they hauing long since shaued away all the honour and reuerence of a man from their owne cheekes , in hatred and despight of their fellow Ministers in the Greeke Church , refusing to stoope vnder the tyranny of the Westerne Babylon . Tra● substantiat bread and wine into Christs body ? with what reason ? nay by what miracle ? Entities say the Philosophers are not to be multiplied without cause , much lesse miracles . We see bread & wine in the Sacrament after the consecration , we smell it , we tast it , we handle it , we digest it , and yet is it nothing else but Christ ? the very same body in which he suffered , the very same substance in which he sits at the right hand of God the Father in glory ? Where be his lin●aments , where appeares his Maiesty and br●ghtnesse ? His face in the transfiguration did shine as the Sunne on Mount Thabor , when he appeared talking with Moses and Elias , vnto the three Disciples . Or if from the Tragedy of the Crosse the Eucharist receiue him , why should not the same miracle make his side again send forth an issue of water and bloud , to wash away the murthers , incests , rapines and blasphemies , which for many hundred yeeres all secular principalities did with griefe , behold and for feare dared not reuenge on the neckes of the Papall Clergy . Must we of necessity deny our senses , by whom we enforme our reason , or shall we be irreligious ? How then shall we beleeue the Apostle from an argument of sense , prouing the ioyfull resurrection of our mortall bodies ? We see the corne dye and rot , and then spring vp againe into a blade , and stalke , and eare , laden with encrease ; and thence wee would gladly say with S. Paul : So shall our dead bodies be raised vp , and spread themselues into all varieties of liuelihood : into armes , and legs , and veines , and sinewes and arteries , and then this mortall shall flourish immortally , as well in blisse as being . But the Monkes , and Popes , and Cardinals haue stollen away or antiquated , by a new awe of superstition , all the trust of sense and reason . Should men haue continued in their senses , and their reason , perfit of their creation , as God made them , they would neuer haue suffered Religion to be made so costly vnto their deuotion , for the kissing of old bones , shirts , smockes , muckingers , pantables and petticotes , or other such like raffe and trumpery , with the gaines of which , the Roman Antichrist hath now long since built vp , and drest the superarrogant vice of his triple Diadem . I may say vnto them as Cicero saith vnto the Stoicks : His praestigijs regna nata vobis sunt , & imperia , & diuitiae , & tantae quidem , vt omnia quae vbique sint , vestra esse dicatis ; With these new fangled tynsill Diuinities you haue established vnto your selues kingdomes and Empires , and with the Diuell you cry out , that riches and all is yours . We see with open eyes within distance , and yet we must confesse that we are deceiued ; we taste bread in the Sacrament , and poore lay people , if they will giue vs the cup also , though neuer so much dasht with water , with such food in quantity we can liue , and blesse God both for a temporall and spirituall sustenance , & yet when we thus eat , we must say that we eat nothing . For so saies their Byshop Gwymundus Scholler vnto Lanfrancke Archbyshop of Canterbury , who after his false Masters example , wrought anciently against the learned , religious , and noble Berengarius defending our truth . If to make experience wee doe liue vpon the consecrate bread and both digest and bedraught it , as nature vses : if by chance we see it nibled with mice , putrified with wormes , or deuoured by dogs , he will haue vs say and beleeue that all this is onely an illusion of sense , such as Mary Maudlins was , when she tooke Christ for the Gardener , and that the sacred bread , free from all corruption , is by the seruice of Angels , or selfe power , taken vp into heauen . Lord ! in the negligence of doting and prophane Priests , how many Sacraments then , how many thousands and millions are treasured vp to Diuinity ? Christ in this multiplication would himselfe fill vp the greatest part of his heauenly Mansions . After this first great vnbeliefe and deniall of our selues , what manner of gainefull impostures haue not beene thrust vpon Christian soules ? Transubstantiating also the linnen corporall of the acrament into the very body and blood of Saint Paul and Saint Peter , to encrease their staple of reliques . The supremacie of Rome ouer all Princes and Nations , besides the Turke and Tartar , who will one day bring home to her dores the iust vengeance of that strumpets rebellion . So many limboes , purgatories , Peter-pencd annats , indulgencies , merits of pilgrimage , vnnaturall impossible vowes , and the infallibility of the Popes Chayre : God , if it be his blessed will , raise vp some magnanimous Prince to rescue Christian people from such a senslesse stupidity as hath for a long time astonisht them : either Prince or Prophet for so great a worke of reformation and restauration of Christian peoples fiue sound senses cannot be effected without a minghty power of sword or miracle . But here peraduenture some men will wish vs to take heed , lest we vie the assurance of our senses against the authority of Scripture . The Euangelists say , This is my body , This is my bloud : and must not we of force say the like ? Is the bread consecrate , is Christs body and the wine , is his bloud not consubstantiate nor transubstantiate , but Sacramentally , figuratiuely , and effectually to as many as haue a faithfull remembrance of Christs incarnation , vnto which wee are confirmed by the sensible experience of the Apostles . And the Word was made flesh ( saith Saint Iohn ) and dwelt amongst vs , and we saw the glory thereof as the glory of the onely begotten Sonne of the Father , full of grace and truth . And againe , in his Epistle . That which was from the beginning , which we haue heard , which we haue seene with our eye● , which we haue looked vpon , and our hands haue handled of the word of life . For the life appeared , and we haue seene it , and beare witnesse , and shew vnto you the eternall life which was with the Father , and appeared vnto vs. ] That I say , which we haue seene and heard , declare we vnto you , that ye may also haue fellowship with vs , and that our fellowship also may be with the Father , and with his Sonne Iesus Christ .

The Sacrament was ordained for other purpose then to pose our senses . To callvs still into a remembrance of our reconciliation vnto God the Father by the birth , merits , and passion of the Sonne . To call vs to a reconciliation of our selues , one vnto another . As God forgaue vs , so should wee heere mutually exchange forgiuenesse . Certainly this briefe aduice and intention of a Sacrament is farre more holy , then the preparation of him in Wiclifs time , who for the practice of the Sacramenr against the ensuing solemnity of Easter , did fit at the request of some friends seuenty two questions and answers , aecording to the number of Christs Disciples or the worlds languages . The questions , some of them are these . If an Angell or the soule of a dead priest in another mans body assumed , or a Priest blessed already in heauen may confect Christs body . If a Priest may consecrate one part of the Oast and leaue the other vnconsecrate . If it be better to consecrate with huge , lusty , strong wine , then with small and feeble . Whither all the parts of Christ glorified bee in the Sacrament . Whither all that is consecrated in the bread be also in the wine . Whither more then foure words be required to the consecration of the body , and more then fiue for the bloud . What a Priest must doe , if after the consecration hee finde no wine in the Chalice . What a Priest ought to doe , if after the consecration , he see flesh or a little young boy in the Sacrament . What man not giuen ouer to a reprobate sense will not easily vnderstand the illusion of these men , stuffing their missals and ceremoniall bookes with so many impertinent vanities , so many foolish and darke imaginations , refusing as the Gentiles did before them , to see cleerly the invisible power of God in the visibility of his creation , changing the truth of God into a lye , and worshipping and seruing the creature more then the Creator , who is blessed for euer : with these propositions I desire not to moue laughter , but both in my selfe and you a sad disdaine of the most foolish Cimmerian darkenesse , which the Roman tyranny had drawne ouer our senses , our reason , our iudgement , and all the intellectuall faculties of the soule , which in the dayes of our Ancestors was at the reuolution of this feast to combate with so many meteors of Diuinity . The irreligion , the violence , the presumption of the Roman Church in this part is infinite . Christ said at the Passeouer that he would no more drinke of the fruit of the Vine , vntill the kingdome of God be come ; And they at all aduentures in their kingdome haue hurld him into the cup . He said he would no more eat the bread , and they make him deuoure it . He tooke bread , and hee tooke wine , and said , this bread and this cup is my new Testament . And they say no , here is neither this nor that , but in visible sensible bread nothing is , but Christ inuisible . Wee see not that which is , and what wee see , that is nothing Yes , in this nothing with them , Christ is fully as long & broad , and corpulent as at the day of his passion , receiued in whole , and euery part and crumme entirely into the narrownesse of our mouthes . They read riddles , and not Sacraments . Christ tooke bread , and brake it when he had giuen thankes , and gaue it to his Disciples , and they take bread , and by consecration make a Metamorphosis of substance , and then aduise in their leud treatises how they may breake the white round accident of their Sacramentall wafer without plucking and tearing asunder a legge or arme of Christ . These and the like blasphemies when to establish against our Wicklesse , the Friers and Bishops had gathered themselues together at Poules in London , heare of that reuerend man what happened .

For I dare truly say , saith he , that if these things were sothe , Christ and his Seints dyed hecetycks and tho more parte of holy Kirke vileued now heresie . And therefore deuout men supposen that this counsell of Freris at London was with erthdyn : Earthquake . for they put an heresie vpon Christ and Sentis in heu●ne , where-fore the earth trembled , and Faylande mans voice ) answeared for God , as it did in t●me of his passion , when hee was dambned to bodily death . The earth euer shakes when any violence is pretended to his body . After he had once yeelded vp the Ghost of our mortality , his body resurrectiue both of himselfe and vs , by that signe leades capriuity captiue . He cried with a loud voyce , and yeelded vp the ghost , and behold the vaile of the Temple was rent in twaine , and the earth did quake , and the stones were clouen , and the graues did open themselues , and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose , and came out of the graues after his resurrection . Ioseph of Arimathea , an honourable Senatour , desires in loue to conserue his body in a new tombe , which hee had hewed out in a rocke , and for that purpose rolled a great stone to the doore of the Sepulchre . The Priests and Pharises assembled to Pilate , and to make all more sure , seale the stone , and gard it with a watch , but in the dawning of this day there was againe a great earth-quake ; The Angell descended from heauen , and rolled backe the stone from the doore , and sat vpon it , and for feare of him , the keepers were astonied , and became as dead men . Aske our Stories , and also a third time when the Friers at London will imprison his body in bread , or drowne it in the Chalice , the earth shakes anew . Let vs therefore rather heare the voyce of the Angell vnto the women ; Surrexit , non est hic . Iesus of Nazareth , which on good Friday was crucified on the crosse at Ierusalem by the Iewes ; which is , so much as in them lies , still crucified by the degenerous Romans in their prostitute Sacrament : hee is risen , hee is not here , hee is entred into heauen , hee is made higher then the heauens , hee sits at the right hand of Maiestie in the glory and blisse of heauen . Gaze wee must not any more after a vision of Christs body , vntill in a second fulnesse of time it shall please him againe to descend and repaire the ruines of this world into an eternall renouation . Euen at that time the powers of heauen shall be shaken , and wee shall see the Sonne of man come in a cloud with power and great glorie . For the Lord himselfe , saith Saint Paul , shall descend from heauen with a shout , and with the voyce of the Archangell , and with the trumpet of GOD ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first . Then shall wee which liue and remaine be caught vp with them also in the clouds , to meete the LORD in the aire ; and so shall wee euer be with the LORD . Wherefore comfort your selues one another with these words . And againe , vntill the consummation of that day , reioyce in the mysterie of this , from the words of the same Apostle : GOD is manifested in the flesh , iustified in the Spirit , seene of Angels , beleeued on in the world , and receiued vp in glory .