The Fourth Book is of the Eating and Drinking of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. THE gross error of the papists, is of the carnal eating CHAP. and drinking of Christ's flesh and blood with our mouths. I. Whether evil men and drink For they say, that whosoever eat and drink the sacraments of bread and wine, do eat and drink also with their do eat mouths Christ's very flesh and blood, be they never so Christ. ungodly and wicked persons. But Christ himself taught clean contrary in the sixth of John, that we eat not him carnally with our mouths, but spiritually with our faith, saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in The godly me, hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your only eat fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and died. This John vi. is the bread that came from heaven, that whosoever shall eat thereof, shall not die. I am the lively bread that came from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And the bread which I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Christ. This is the most true doctrine of our Saviour Christ, that whosoever eateth him, shall have everlasting life. And by and by it followeth in the same place of John more clearly: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the John vi. flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath life everlasting, and I will raise him again at the last day: for my flesh is very meat, and my blood is very drink. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; even so he that eateth me, shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this bread, shall live for ever. This taught our Saviour Christ as well his disciples as the Jews at Capernaum, that the eating of his flesh and BOOK drinking of his blood was not like to the eating of manna. IV. For both good and bad did eat manna, but none do eat his flesh and drink his blood, but they have everlasting life. For as his Father dwelleth in him, and he in his Father, and so hath life by his Father: so he that eateth Christ's flesh and drinketh his blood, dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him, and by Christ he hath eternal life. What need we any other witness? when Christ himself doth testify the matter so plainly, that whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood, hath everlasting life; and that to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, is to believe in him; and whosoever believeth in him, hath everlasting life. Whereof it followeth necessarily, that ungodly persons, being limbs of the Devil, do not eat Christ's flesh nor drink his blood: except the papists would say, that such have everlasting life. But as the Devil is the food of the wicked, which he nourisheth in all iniquity, and bringeth up unto everlasting damnation so is Christ the very food of all them that be the lively members of his body, and them he nourisheth, feedeth, bringeth up, and cherisheth unto everlasting lifea. a Aug. In Joan. Hom. 26. super hunc locum: Patres vestri manducaverunt manna in deserto, et mortui sunt. “Quantum, inquit, pertinet "ad mortem istam visibilem et corporalem, numquid nos non morimur, "qui manducamus panem de cœlo descendentem?" Et mox, "Quan66 tum autem pertinet ad illam mortem de qua terret Dominus, quia "mortui sunt patres istorum, manducavit manna et Moses, mandu. "cavit et Aaron, manducavit manna et Phinees, manducaverunt ibi "multi, qui Domino placuerunt, et mortui non sunt. Quare? Quia "visibilem cibum spiritualiter intellexerunt, spiritualiter_esurierunt, "spiritualiter gustaverunt, ut spiritualiter satiarentur. Nam et nos "hodie accepimus visibilem cibum, sed aliud est sacramentum, aliud "virtus sacramenti. Quam multi de altari accipiunt et moriuntur, "et accipiendo moriuntur? Unde dicit Apostolus: (1 Cor. xi.) Judi"cium sibi manducat et bibit. Nonne buccella dominica venenum fuit "Judæ? (John xiii.) Et tamen accepit, et cum accepit, in eum inimicus intravit, non quia malum accepit, sed quia bonum malus male " accepit. Videte ergo, fratres, panem cœlestem spiritualiter mandu"cate." Et mox: "Patres vestri manna manducaverunt, et mortui "sunt; non quia malum erat manna, sed quia male manducaverunt. "Hic est panis qui de cælo descendit, hunc panem significavit manna, "hunc panem significavit altare Dei. Sacramenta illa fuerunt, in "signis diversa sunt, sed in re quæ significatur, paria sunt," &c. Et mox: "Ut si quis manducaverit ex ipso non moriatur in æternum. Sed "quod pertinet ad virtutem sacramenti, non quod pertinet ad visibile II. eating of flesh, and And every good and faithful Christian man feeleth in CHAP. himself how he feedeth of Christ, eating his flesh and drinking of his blood. For he putteth the whole hope and What is the trust of his redemption and salvation in that only sacrifice, Christ's which Christ made upon the cross, having his body there drinking of broken, and his blood there shed for the remission of his his blood. sins. And this great benefit of Christ the faithful man earnestly considereth in his mind, chaweth and digesteth it with the stomach of his heart, spiritually receiving Christ wholly into him, and giving again himself wholly unto Christ. And this is the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood, the feeling whereof is to every man the feeling how he eateth and drinketh Christ, which none evil man nor member of the Devil can do. JII. For as Christ is a spiritual meat, so is he spiritually eaten CHAP. and digested with the spiritual part of us, and giveth us, spiritual and eternal life, and is not eaten, swallowed, and Christ is digested with our teeth, tongues, throats, and bellies. not eaten with teeth, faith. "Therefore," saith St. Cyprianb, "he that drinketh of the but with holy cup, remembering this benefit of God, is more thirsty "than he was before. And lifting up his heart unto the 66 66 living God, is taken with such a singular hunger and appetite, that he abhorreth all gally and bitter drinks of “sin; and all savour of carnal pleasure is to him, as it "were, sharp and sour vinegar. And the sinner being con"verted, receiving the holy mysteries of the Lord's Sup"per, giveth thanks unto God, and boweth down his head, 66 knowing that his sins be forgiven, and that he is made "clean and perfect; and his soul, which God hath sancti"fied, he rendereth to God again as a faithful pledge, and "then he glorieth with Paul, and rejoiceth, saying, Now "it is not I that live, but it is Christ that liveth within me. "These things be practised and used among faithful people; and to pure minds the eating of his flesh is no 66 "sacramentum. Qui manducat intus, non foris, qui manducat in corde, "non qui premit dente." EMBD. b Cyprianus, De Cana Domini. [See note p. 323.] IV. BOOK "horror but honour, and the spirit delighteth in the drink"ing of the holy and sanctifying blood. And doing this, we whet not our teeth to bite, but with pure faith we "break the holy bread." These be the words of Cyprian. CHAP. And according unto the same, St. Austen saith, “ Pre"pare not thy jaws, but thy heart." And in another placed, he saith, "Why dost thou prepare thy belly and thy "teeth? believe, and thou hast eaten." But of this matter is sufficiently spoken before, where it is proved, that "to eat Christ's flesh" and "drink his blood" be figurative speechese. And now to return to our purpose, that only the lively members of Christ do eat his flesh and drink his blood, I The good shall bring forth many other places of ancient authors before not mentioned. only eat Christ. First, Origen writeth plainly after this manner: "The "Word was made flesh and very meat, which whoso eateth "shall surely live for ever; which no evil man can eat. "For if it could be that he that continueth evil might eat "the Word made flesh, seeing that he is the Word and "bread of life, it should not have been written, Whoso 66 ever eateth this bread shall live for ever." These words be so plain, that I need say nothing for the more clear declaration of them. Wherefore you shall hear how Cyprian agreeth with him. August. De Verbis Domini, Serm. 33. d In Joan. Tract. 25. с Aug. In Joan. Tract. 26. "Credere in eum, hoc est manducare pa"nem vivum. Qui credit in eum, manducat, invisibiliter saginatur, quia "et invisibiliter renascitur. Infans intus est, novus intus est, ubi novel"latur, ibi satiatur." Idem, Psal. 21. in Expositione Prima, "Sacra❝menta corporis et sanguinis mei reddam coram timentibus eum. "Edent pauperes et saturabuntur, edent humiles et contemptores se"culi et imitabuntur. Ita enim nec copiam hujus seculi concupiscent nec timebunt inopiam. Et laudabunt Dominum qui requirunt eum: ❝nam laus Domini est eructatio saturitatis illius. Vivent corda eorum "in seculum seculi; nam cibus ille cordis est." Clemens Alexandrinus in Pædagogo, lib. ii. cap. 2. "Hoc est bibere "Jesu sanguinem, esse participem incorruptionis Domini." De Consecrat. dist. 2. "Utrum :" "Quia Christum fas vorari den"tibus non est," &c. EMBD. f Origenes, In Matt. cap. 15. IV. Cyprian, in his Sermon ascribed unto him of the Lord's CHAP. Suppers, saith, "The author of this tradition said, that "except we eat his flesh and drink his blood we should "have no life in us; instructing us with a spiritual lesson, "and opening to us a way to understand so privy a thing, "that we should know that the eating is our dwelling in “him, and our drinking is as it were an incorporation in "him, being subject unto him in obedience, joined unto "him in our wills, and united in our affections. The eating therefore of this flesh, is a certain hunger and desire "to dwell in him." 66 Thus writeth Cyprian of the eating and drinking of Christ. And a little after he saith, that "none do eat "of this Lamb, but such as be true Israelites, that is to say, 66 pure Christian men, without colour or dissimulation." And Athanasius, speaking of the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood, saith, that "for this cause he "made mention of his ascension into heaven, to pluck them "from corporal phantasy, that they might learn hereafter "that his flesh was called the celestial meat that came from "above, and a spiritual food which he would give. For John vi. "those things that I speak to you, saith he, be spirit "and life. Which is as much to say, as that thing which you see, shall be slain and given for the nourishment of "the world, that it may be distributed to every body spiritually, and be to all men a conservation unto the resur"rection of eternal life." 66 66 In these words Athanasius declareth the cause why Christ made mention of his ascension into heaven, when he spake of the eating and drinking of his flesh and blood. The cause after Athanasius's mind was this, that his hearers should not think of any carnal eating of his body with their mouths; for as concerning the presence of his body, he should be taken from them, and ascend into heaven; but that they should understand him to be a spiritual meat, and spiritually to be eaten, and by that refreshing to give eter g Cyprianus in Sermo. de Cana Domini. [See note p. 323.] h Athanasius, De Peccato in Spiritum Sanctum. |