and in whom Christ tarrieth not, no doubt he doth not spiritually eat his flesh, nor drink his blood, although he do carnally and visibly crush with his teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; but he doth rather eat and drink to his damnation the sacrament of so noble a thing'." Here is your transubstantiation utterly denied; for Saint Augustine putteth a plain difference between the sacrament and the thing itself. Again, the same Augustine in the same place addeth these words: "The sacrament of this thing, that is, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is in some places prepared every day; in some other places but certain days, as on the Sunday; and is taken of the table of the Lord to some persons to life, to some other to destruction but the thing itself is to all persons to life, and to destruction to no man that may be partaker thereof." What needeth it to rehearse any more witnesses, seeing these are sufficient, either to prove Saint Augustine an heretic, either else to declare this transubstantiation to be both foolish and abominable; both for that it trusseth together the divinity, and enlargeth the humanity beyond all measure, thruching up into a corner that part which no place can contain, and setting at liberty to be in all places that which must needs be in one place only? If every man will follow his conscience in this matter, I doubt not but they shall soon

[1 Denique jam exponit, quomodo id fiat quod loquitur, et quid sit manducare ejus corpus, et sanguinem ejus bibere. Qui manducat carnem meam, et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in illo. Hoc est ergo manducare illam escam, et bibere illum potum, in Christo manere, et illum manentem in se habere. Ac per hoc qui non manet in Christo, et in quo non manet Christus, proculdubio nec manducat spiritaliter carnem ejus, nec bibit ejus sanguinem, licet carnaliter et visibiliter premat dentibus sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Christi: sed magis tantæ rei sacramentum ad judicium sibi manducat et bibit, quia immundus præsumpsit ad Christi accedere sacramenta. Augustin. Expositionis in Evang. Joannis Tractatus XXVI, de Cap. vi. Tom. ix. p. 50. G. H. Ed. 1541.]

[2 Hujus rei sacramentum, id est, unitatis corporis et sanguinis Christi, alicubi quotidie, alicubi certis intervallis dierum in dominica mensa præparatur, et de dominica mensa sumitur quibusdam ad vitam, quibusdam ad exitium. Res vero ipsa, cujus et sacramentum est, omni homini ad vitam, nulli ad exitium, quicumque ejus particeps fuerit. Ib. F.]

be persuaded, how far wide this transubstantiation is from the truth. But now take they hold of the words of the Lord at the first institution of this most sacred sacrament, which are these: "This is my body, which shall be delivered for you. This is my blood which shall be shed for you and many unto remission of sins." What natural, essential, and real presence they build upon these words, is abundantly declared in the Bishop of Winchester and Doctor Smith's books3.

I shall therefore most humbly desire the reader utterly to shake off all superstitious persuasions of old usages, giving himself wholly to the teaching of the Spirit of God, who teacheth inwardly in the heart all them that give over themselves to his teaching and information. And I, for my part, yielding me to the same Spirit, shall in this case write the thing only, which my conscience shall give me to be of the Spirit of the living God; and my trust is, that the good Spirit of God is my leader.

As concerning the understanding of the words of Christ, you shall know that the manner of teaching is double, that is to say, by words, and by signs. By words we teach, when we declare unto the hearers by words the thing that we would they should know. By signs we teach, when we do something, whereby the beholders may gather our meaning; as Tarquinius Superbus did, when he struck off the tops of the highest poppies, declaring thereby, that his advice was to have the greatest rulers beheaded'. We teach also both by words and by signs, when we add unto the words some action, to declare and, as it were, to expound the words withal: as is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles [Acts xxi. 10 of a prophet, which declared unto Paul the persecution he should endure at Hierusalem, whither he was going; and to make the matter more plain, he took Paul's girdle from about him, and tied his feet withal, saying, "The man whose girdle this is shall be thus bounden at Hierusalem." Even so, good christian brethren, our Saviour Christ, willing to

[3 For a full account of these works, see Strype's Life of Cranmer, Book II. Chap. xxxv.; also Memorials. II. 1. p. 52; also Cranmer's Writings and Disputations relative to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; Hooper's Answer to the Bishop of Winchester's Book; Early Writings of Bishop Hooper, pp. 97, &c. P. S. Ed. Bishop Ridley's Works, pp. 307, &c.] [4 Tit. Liv. Histor. Lib. 1. cap. liv.]

:

declare to his apostles the wonderful participation that all faithful Christians should have in his body and blood, took bread, which is the chief, and in scripture counted the only food of the body of man; and when he had after his accustomed manner given thanks, he blessed, not crossing the bread with the three hinder fingers, having the forefinger and the thumb fast joined together: no, he made no sign of the cross at all for to make the sign of the cross was in those days none other than it is now to make the sign of a gallowtree. He blessed, therefore, after the manner that the fathers, the prophets, and patriarchs used: that is, he invocated and called upon the name of his Father, desiring him to accomplish invisibly in all his faithful darlings the thing which he intended to declare unto them by the visible sign. Then said he to his apostles, "Take ye, eat ye; this is my body, which shall be delivered for you." Not meaning that he had changed the nature of bread into the nature of flesh, making the bread that he held in his hand his natural body; for then had he given unto them a mortal and corruptible body to eat; which thing is so much ungodly, that very nature abhorreth it. But he gave them the bread to eat, saying: "This is my body, which shall be delivered for you. I became man for none other purpose, but that my body should be torn and rent to satisfy for your sins, that your souls might be fed, and have like participation thereof, as your bodies have of this bread; and you, which be my faithful, are as this bread is, one body made of many bodies; for every little grain whereof this bread is made is of himself a body, and yet joined together they are but one body. In like manner, you that believe in me, though ye be many, yet joined together by faith, ye are but one body, and I am your head. This mystery can you not understand without some visible sign, which may represent unto you the verity thereof: Take ye this bread therefore; and know for certainty, that like as it is one, so are ye one, if ye remain in faith. as it nourisheth the body, so doth my passion nourish the soul, which hath no life but in me, and by me." In like manner, when he had supped, he took the cup, saying: "Take and drink ye all of this; this is the cup of the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you and many unto remission of sins. Do this, so oft as you drink, in my

ye,

And

remembrance." Another sign to declare this mystery by: "This cup of wine is but one body, and yet it is made of many grapes; and so are you but one body, although you be many, so long as you be joined together by faith. It comforteth the heart and the lively spirits of the body; and so doth my blood shed on the cross comfort the soul. By this action have I declared unto you the mystery of the participation you have in me by faith. Use you the same; that this your deliverance by me may never slip out of your mind. We have eaten the lamb, which putteth us in remembrance of the wonderful deliverance out of the captivity in Egypt, which was done more than a thousand years past; so shall you eat this bread, and drink this cup, in remembrance of your redemption and deliverance out of the spiritual Egypt, and from the spiritual Pharao, the devil. And when you shall be demanded, what you mean by this eating and drinking, you shall say: We were, through the sin and transgression of the first man Adam, made bondmen and captives to the devil; out of which bondage we could by no means be delivered, till it had pleased God the Father to send his only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, that he might die, and be an acceptable sacrifice to pacify the Father's wrath."

Wherefore, the night before he suffered, he declared unto us by these visible signs, what communion we have in him of all that ever he deserved for us. And then he commanded us to use the same; because we should be always put in remembrance of that our redemption and deliverance, none otherwise than Moses did to the Israelites, the night before he did by the wonderful might of God bring them. out of the great captivity, wherein they were holden in Egypt. The words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians do teach no less than I have here written. For he saith: "So often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you shall declare the death of the Lord till he come. And therefore, whosoever eateth of this bread, or drinketh of this cup unworthily, doth eat and drink his own damnation." Here is a plain declaration of the end and purpose of Christ, when he instituted this most sacred sacrament: forsooth, to keep in remembrance his most dolorous death, and precious blood most plenteously shed upon the cross. And whosoever eateth and drinketh it unworthily, that is to say,

for any other purpose than for the same it was ordained for, the same eateth and drinketh his own damnation. I think not contrary, but that most men will think this a strange interpretation of this place; forasmuch as the most ancient, yea, all the doctors that make any mention of this place, and Calvin himself in this book which I have translated, do apply the unworthiness in receiving of this sacrament to the unpenitent heart of the person which receiveth it. And in very deed, such one is far unworthy to receive so worthy a sacrament; forasmuch as he is not the member nor servant of Christ, but a member of the devil, and servant to sin. And this interpretation is no less godly than fruitful. For thereby are the members of Christ put in fear to presume to come to the table of the Lord, unless they have first examined and found themselves the true members of Christ, endued and adorned with perfect faith, hope, and charity. But if we will go to the native sense of the text, we shall perceive, that in this place Paul speaketh of the small regard the Corinthians had to this most sacred sacrament, not using it with so much reverence as they ought to do. For he addeth these words, "Putting no difference of the Lord's body" as he should have said, esteeming it nothing better than the common bread wherewith they fed their bodies. The phrase of speaking giveth this interpretation; for if I say, This man was not worthily entertained, I mean not, that the party which entertained him was not worthy to entertain so noble a man; but that he was not used, as was beseeming for such a man to be used. So that to receive the sacrament unworthily is to receive it otherwise, or for another purpose, than it ought to be received for; that is, after any other form, or for any other purpose, than the words of the first institution do declare. For when the use of good things is altered from the purpose and end they were first ordained for, then are they unworthily handled. All they therefore, which do privately receive the sacrament, either to merit themselves, or other; that do make it a sacrifice for the redemption of sin; or to pacify God's wrath in any condition, or after any other form, or for any other purpose than is declared in the words of the first institution, do receive it to their damnation; putting no difference of the Lord's body, but using it as a matter of merchandise, or