Ch. lxvii. 2 On the Controversy concerning the Sacrament. BOOK V without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth ; in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God, that we know by grace what the grace is which God giveth us; the degrees of our own increase in holiness and virtue we see, and can judge of them; we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ, is Christ; that his flesh is meat, and his blood drink, not by surmised imagination, but truly, even so truly, that through faith we perceive in the body and blood sacramentally presented the very taste of eternal life; the grace of the sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink. This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zuinglius and Ecolampadius would bring to pass, that men should account of this sacrament but only as of a shadow, destitute, empty, and void of Christ. But seeing, that, by opening the several opinions which have been held, they are grown, for aught I can see, on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material, namely, the real participation of Christ, and of life in his body and blood, by means of this sacrament; wherefore should the world continue still distracted, and rent with so manifold contentions, when there remaineth now no controversy, saving only about the subject where Christ is? Yea, even in this point, no side denieth, but that the soul of man is the receptacle of Christ's presence. Whereby the question is yet driven to a narrower issue, nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this, whether, when the sacrament is administered, Christ be whole within man only, or else his body and blood be also externally seated in the very consecrated elements themselves. Which opinion they that defend, are driven either to consubstantiate and incorporate Christ with elements sacramental, or to transubstantiate and change their substance into his; and so the one to hold him really, but invisibly, moulded up with the substance of those elements, the other to hide him under the only visible show of bread and wine, the substance whereof, as they imagine, is abolished, and his succeeded in the same room. All things considered, and compared with that success which truth hath hitherto had by so bitter conflicts with errors in this point, shall I wish that men would more give themselves On the Conduct of the Disciples of Christ. 3 Ch. lxvii. to meditate with silence what we have by the sacrament, and Book V. less to dispute of the manner how? If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness, let us see whether the Apostles of our Lord themselves have not done the like. It appeareth by many examples, that they of their own disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive, yea, in other cases of less importance, and less difficulty, always apt to move questions. How cometh it to pass, that so few words of so high a mystery being uttered, they receive with gladness the gift of Christ, and make no show of doubt or scruple? The reason hereof is not dark to them which have any thing at all observed how the powers of the mind are wont to stir, when that which we infinitely long for presenteth itself above and besides expectation. Curious and intricate speculations do hinder, they abate, they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy as divine graces use to raise when extraordinarily they are present. The mind therefore, feeling present joy, is always marvellous unwilling to admit any other cogitation, and in that case casteth off those disputes whereunto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth. A manifest effect whereof may be noted, if we compare with our Lord's disciples in the twentieth of John, the people that are said in the sixth of John to have gone after him to Capernaum. These leaving him on the one side of the sea of Tiberias, and finding him again as soon as themselves by ship were arrived on the contrary side, whither they knew that by ship he came not, and by land the journey was longer than according to the time he could have to travel, as they wondered, so they asked also, "Rabbi, when camest thou John vi. 25. hither?" The disciples, when Christ appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous manner, moved no question, but rejoiced greatly in what they saw. For why? The one sort beheld only that in Christ which they knew was more than natural, but yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great extraordinary gladness; the other, when they looked on Christ, were not ignorant that they saw the wellspring of their own everlasting felicity: the one, because they enjoyed not, disputed; the other disputed not, because they enjoyed. If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move, 4 On the Conduct of the Disciples of Christ. Ch. Ixvii. BOOK V judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ, not before their eyes, but within their souls. They had learned before, that his flesh and blood are the true cause of eternal life; that this they are not by the bare force of their own substance, but through the dignity and worth of his Person, which offered them up by way of sacrifice for the life of the whole world, and doth make them still effectual thereunto; finally, that to us they are life in particular, by being particularly received. Thus much they knew, although as yet they understood not perfectly to what effect or issue the same would come, till at the length being assembled for no other cause which they could imagine but to have eaten the Passover only that Moses appointed, when they saw their Lord and Master, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, first bless and consecrate, for the endless good of all generations till the world's end, the chosen elements of bread and wine; which elements, made for ever the instruments of life by virtue of his divine benediction, they being the first that were commanded to receive from him, the first which were warranted by his promise, that not only unto them at the present time, but to whomsoever they and their successors after them did duly administer the same, those mysteries should serve as conducts of life, and conveyances of his body and blood unto them; was it possible they should hear that voice, "Take, eat, this is my body; drink ye all of this, this is my blood?" possible, that doing what was required, and believing what was promised, the same should have present effect in them, and not fill them with a kind of fearful admiration at the heaven which they saw in themselves? They had at that time a sea of comfort and joy to wade in, and we by that which they did are taught that this heavenly food is given for the satisfying of our empty souls, and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits. If we doubt what those admirable words may import, let him be our teacher for the meaning of Christ, to whom Christ was himself a schoolmaster; let our Lord's Apostle be his interpreter, content we ourselves with his explication; my body, the communion of my body: my blood, the communion of my blood. Is there any thing more expedite, clear, and easy, On the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood. 5 than that as Christ is termed our life because through him we obtain life; so the parts of this sacrament are his body and blood, for that they are so to us, who receiving them, receive that by them which they are termed? The bread and cup are his body and blood, because they are causes instrumental upon the receipt whereof the participation of his body and blood ensueth. For that which produceth any certain effect, is not vainly nor improperly said to be that very effect whereunto it tendeth. Every cause is in the effect which groweth from it. Our souls and bodies quickened to eternal life are effects, the cause whereof is the Person of Christ; his body and blood are the true wellspring out of which this life. floweth. So that his body and blood are in that very subject whereunto they minister life; not only by effect or operation, even as the influence of the heavens is in plants, beasts, men, and in every thing which they quicken; but also by a far more divine and mystical kind of union, which maketh us one with him, even as he and the Father are one. BOOK V. Ch. lxvii. 20-28. The real presence of Christ's most blessed body and blood is not therefore to be sought for in the sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the sacrament. And with this the very order of our Saviour's words agreeth, first, "Take and eat ;" Matt. xxvi. then, "This is my Body which was broken for you:" first, "Drink ye all of this;" then followeth, "This is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." I see not which way it should be gathered by the words of Christ when and where the bread is his body, or the cup his blood; but only in the very heart and soul of him which receiveth them. As for the sacraments, they really exhibit, but for aught we can gather out of that which is written of them, they are not really, nor do really contain in themselves, that grace which with them, or by them, it pleaseth God to bestow. If on all sides it be confessed, that the grace of baptism is poured into the soul of man; that by water we receive it, although it be neither seated in the water, nor the water changed into it; what should induce men to think, that the grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before it can be in us that receive it? The fruit of the Eucharist is the participation of the body and blood of Christ. There is no sentence of holy Scripture which saith, that we cannot by Ch. lxvii. BOOK V. this sacrament be made partakers of his body and blood, except they be first contained in the sacrament, or the sacrament converted into them. "This is my body," and, "This is my blood," being words of promise, sith we all agree, that by the sacrament Christ doth really and truly in us perform his promise, why do we vainly trouble ourselves with so fierce contentions, whether by consubstantiation, or else by transubstantiation, the sacrament itself be first possessed with Christ, or no? A thing which no way can either further or hinder us, howsoever it stand, because our participation of Christ in this sacrament dependeth on the cooperation of his omnipotent power which maketh it his body and blood to us; whether with change or without alteration of the element, such as they imagine, we need not greatly to care or inquire. Take therefore that wherein all agree, and then consider by itself what cause why the rest in question should not rather be left as superfluous than urged as necessary. It is on all sides plainly confessed, first, that this sacrament is a true and real participation of Christ, who thereby imparteth himself, even his whole entire Person, as a mystical head, unto every soul that receiveth him, and that every such receiver doth thereby incorporate or unite himself unto Christ as a mystical member of him, yea, of them also whom he acknowledgeth to be his own. Secondly, that to whom the person of Christ is thus communicated, to them he giveth by the same sacrament his Holy Spirit to sanctify them, as it sanctifieth him which is their head. Thirdly, that what merit, force, or virtue soever, there is in his sacrificed body and blood, we freely, fully, and wholly have it by this sacrament. Fourthly, that the effect thereof in us, is a real transmutation of our souls and bodies from sin to righteousness, from death and corruption to immortality and life. Fifthly, that because the sacrament being of itself but a corruptible and earthly creature, must needs be thought an unlikely instrument to work so admirable effects in man, we are therefore to rest ourselves altogether upon the strength of his glorious power, who is able and will bring to pass, that the bread and cup which he giveth us shall be truly the thing he promiseth. It seemeth therefore much amiss, that against them whom they term sacramentaries so many invective discourses are |