The 3. part.
His Actes in Galilee, & in Iewrie, about the third Pasche and after.
Hauing with fiuce loaues fed fiue thousand 16. (walking also the night after vpon the sea) 22.
on the morow the people thereupon resorting vnto him, 27. he preacheth vnto them of the Bread
which he wil giue: telling them that heis come from Heauen, and therfore able to giue such bread as
can quicken the world, euen his owne flesh: and that al his Elect shal beleeue as much. 60. Many
notwithstanding doe murmur at this doctrine yea and become apostates, though he tel them that they shal
see by his Ascension into Heauen, that he is descended from Heauen. But the Twelue sticke vnto him,
Peter in al their names confessing that he is God Omnipotent. 70. Among which twelue yet (that no man be
scandalized) he signifieth that he foreknoweth which wil become a traitour: as among the foresaid, which
would become apostates.
1.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon Midlent Sunday.
*
Mat. 14,13.
Mark 6,32.
Luke 9,10.
AFTER these things Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ went beyond the sea of Galilee, which is of Tiberias.
2. and a great multitude followed him, because they saw the signes which he did
vpon those that were sicke.
3. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore went vp into the mountaine, and there he sate with his
Disciples.
4. And the Pasche was at hand, the festiual day of the Iewes.
5. When Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore had lifted vp his eies, and saw that a very great
multitude commeth to him, he saith to Philippe: Whence shal we buie bread, that these may
eate?
6. And this he said, tempting him. For himself knew what he would doe?
7. Philippe answered him: Two hundred penie worth of bread is not sufficient for
them, that euery man may take a litle peece.
8. One of his Disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, saith to him:
9. There is a boy here that hath fiue barley loaues, & two fishes; but what are
these among so many?
10. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore saith: Make the men to sit downe. And there was much grasse
in the place. The men therfore sate downe, in number about fiue thousand.
11. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore tooke the loaues; and when he had giuen thankes, he
distributed to the, that sate. In like manner also of the fishes as much as they would.
12. And after they were filled, he said to his Disciples: Gather the fragments that
are remaining, lest they be lost.
13. They gathered therfore, and filled twelue baskets with fragments of the fiue
barley loaues, which remained to them that had eaten.
14. Those men therfore when they had seen what a signe Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ had done, said,
That this is the Prophet indeed that is to come into the world.
15. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore when he knew that they would come to take him, and make
him King,
*
Mat. 14,23.
Mark 6,46.
he fled againe into the mountaine him self alone.
16. And when euen was come, his Disciples went downe to the sea.
17. And when they were gone vp into the ship, they came beyond the sea into
Capharnaum: And now it was darke and Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ was not come vnto them.
18. And the sea arose, by reason of a great wind that blew.
19. When they had rowed therfore about fiue and twentie or thirtie furlongs, they
see Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ walking vpon the sea, and to draw nigh to the ship, and they feared.
20. But he said to them: It is I, feare not.
21. They would therfore haue taken him into the ship: and forthwith the ship was at
the land to which they went.
22. The next day, the multitude that stood beyond the sea, saw that there was no
other boat there but one, and that Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ had not entred into the boat with his Disciples,
but that his Disciples only were departed.
23. But other boats came in from Tiberias beside the place where they had eaten the
bread, our Lord
✟
These wordes doe plainly import, that the giuing thankes was an effectual
blessing of the bread and working the multiplication thereof.
giuing thankes.
24. When therfore the multitude saw that Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ was not there, nor his Disciples,
they went vp into the boats, & came into Capharnaum seeking Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ.
25. And when they had found him beyond the sea, they said to him: Rabbi, when camest
thou hither?
26. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answered them, and said: Amen, amen I say to you, you seeke me not
because you haue seene signes, but because you did eate of the loaues, and were filled.
27. Worke not the meate that perisheth, but that endureth vnto life euerlasting,
which the Sonne of man wil giue you. For him the Father, God, hath signed.
28. They said therfore vnto him: What shal we doe that we may worke the workes of
God?
29. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answered, and said to them: This is the worke of God, that you beleeue
in him whom he hath sent.
30. They said therfore to him: What signe therfore doest thou, that we may see, and
may beleeue thee? what workest thou?
31. Our
*
Exo. 16,4. 14.
Fathers did eate Manna in the desert as it is written,
*
Psal. 77,24.
Bread from Heauen
he gaue them to eate.
32. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore said to them:
✟
Why we keepe the hebrew word, Amen, and translate it not, See the Annot.
c. vers. 34.
Amen, amen I say to you, Moyses gaue you not
the bread from Heauen, but my Father giueth you the true bread from Heauen.
33. For the bread of God it is that descended from Heauen, and giueth life to the
world.
34. They said therfore vnto him: Lord, giue vs alwaies this bread.
35. And Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ said to them: I am the bread of life, he that commeth to me,
shal not hunger; and he that beleeueth in me, shal neuer thirst.
36. But I said to you that both you haue seen me and you beleeue not.
37.
⋮
The Ghospel in the Anniuersarie of the dead.
Al that the Father giueth me, shal come to me; and him that commeth to me I wil
not cast forth.
38. Because I descended from Heauen, not to doe mine owne wil, but the wil of him
that sent me.
39. For this is the wil of him that sent me, the Father; that al that he hath giuen
me I leese not thereof, but raise it in the last day.
40. And this is the wil of my Father that sent me; that euery one that seeth the
Sonne, and beleeueth in him, haue life euerlasting, & I wil raise him in the last day.
41. The Iewes therfore murmured at him, because he had said, I am the bread which
descended from Heauen;
42. and they said: Is not this Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ the sonne of Ioseph, whose father and
mother we know? How then saith he, That I descended from Heauen?
43. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore answered and said to them: Murmure not one to another:
44. no man can come to me, vnles the Father that sent me, draw him, and I wil raise
him vp in the last day.
45. It is written in the Prophets:
*
Isai. 54,13.
And al shal be docible of God. Euery one
that hath heard the Father, & hath learned, commeth to me.
46.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon Imber wenesday in whitsun weeke.
Not that any man hath seen the Father, but he which is of God; this hath seen
the Father.
47. Amen, amen I say to you: He that beleeueth in me, hath life euerlasting.
48. I am the bread of life.
49. Your fathers did eate Manna in the desert; and they died.
50. This is the bread that descended from Heauen: that if any man eate of it, he
die not.
51.
⋮
The Ghospel in a daily Masse for the dead.
I am the liuing bread, that came downe from Heauen. If any man eate of this bread,
he shal liue for euer: and
*
Mat. 26,26.
Mark 14,22.
Luke 22,19.
1. Corin. 21,24.
the bread which I wil giue, is my flesh for the life of the world.
52. The Iewes therfore stroue among themselues, saying: How can this man giue vs his
flesh to eate?
53. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, Vnles you eate the
flesh of the Sonne of man, and drinke his bloud, you shal not haue life in you.
54. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath life euerlasting; and
I wil
raise him vp in the last day.
55.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon Corpus Christi day.
For my flesh, is meate indeed: and my bloud is drinke indeed.
56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, abideth in me, and I in him.
57. As the liuing Father hath sent me, and I liue by the Father: and he that eateth
me, the same also shal liue by me.
58. This is the bread that came downe from Heauen. Not as your Fathers did eate Manna,
and died. He that eateth this bread, shal liue for euer.
59. These things he said teaching in the Synagogue, in Capharnaum.
60. Many therfore of his Disciples hearing it, said: This saying is hard, and who
can heare it?
61. But Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ knowing with himself that his Disciples murmured at this, he said
to them: Doth this scandalize you?
62. If then you shal see
*
Iohn 3,13.
the Sonne of man ascend where he was before?
63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothng. The wordes that I
haue spoken to you, be spirit and life.
64. But there be certaine of you that beleeue not. For Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ knew from the
beginning who they were that did not beleeue, and who he was that would betray him.
65. And he said: Therfore did I say to you, that no man can come to me, vnles it be
giuen him of my Father.
66. After this many of his Disciples went backe: and now they walked not with him.
67. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore said to the Twelue: What, wil you also depart?
68. Simon Peter therfore answered him: Lord, to whom shal we goe? thou hast the wordes
of eternal life.
69. And we beleeue and haue knowen that thou art Christ the Sonne of God.
70. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answered them: Haue not I chosen you the Twelue; and of you one is
a Diuel?
71. And he meant Iudas Iscariot, Simons sonne: for this same was to betray him,
whereas he was one the Twelue.
ANNOTATIONS.
Cʜᴀᴘ. VI.
27. Worke not the meate.)
By their greedy seeking after him for meate of the bodie, he taketh occasion to
draw them to the desire of a more excellent food which he had to giue them, and so
by litle to open vnto them the great meate and mysterie of the B. Sacrament: which
(as he proueth) doth not only far passe their ordinarie bread or his maruelous
multiplied loaues, but Manna it self, which they thought came from Heauen, and so
much wondered at it.
32. The true bread.)
Why Christ is called bread, and beleeuing, eating.
Though the Person of Christ incarnate, euen out of the Sacrament also, be meant
vnder the Metaphores of bread and drinke from Heauen: and our beleefe in him, be
signified by eating and feeding: yet the causes why they should be recommended
vnto vs in such termes, were, that he was to be eaten and drunken indeed in the
formes of bread and wine: for the which cause his body on the crosse is called
his bread: and his bloud shed on the crosse, *the bloud of the grape: no doubt
because the same body and bloud were in Holy Sacrament to be eaten and drunken.
What signifieth, The true bread.
In which speaches, either of Christs person generally, or peculiarly of the same
as in the B. Sacrament the true bread is not taken properly and specially
for that substance which is of corne, and called with vs bread; but generally for
food or meate: and therfore it hath ioyned with it lightly a terme signifying a
more excellent sort of sustenance: as, the true bread, the bread of Heauen, the
bread of life, Supersubstantial bread.
The B. Sacrament called bread.
**In which sort the holy Sacrament which is Christs body, is both here, and in S.
Luke and S. Paul also, often called bread euen after consecration: not only for
that it was made of bread, but because it is bread more truly, and by more
excellent property and calling, then that which ordinarily is named bread.
*Ierem. 11,19. Gen. 49,11.
**Luke 24,35. Act. 2,42. 20,7. 1. Cor. 10.
44. Draw him.)
God draweth vs with our free-wil.
The Father draweth vs and teacheth vs to come to his Sonne, and to beleeue these
high and hard mysteries of his incarnation and of feeding vs with his owne
substance in the Sacrament: not compelling or violently forcing any against their
wil or without any respect of their consent, as Heretikes pretend; but by the
sweet internal motions and persuasions of his grace and spirit he wholy maketh vs
of our owne wil and liking to consent to the same.
49. Manna, and died.)
The manifold preeminences of the B. Sacrament aboue Manna.
The Heretikes holding the Fathers of the old Testament to haue eaten of the same
meate, and to haue had as good Sacraments as we, be here refuted: Christ putting
a plaine difference in the very substance thereof, and in the graces and effects
much more at large. Manna was only a figure of the B. Sacrament, though a very
excellent figure thereof for many causes. It came in a sort from heauen, our
Sacrament more: it was made by God miraculously, our Sacrament more: it was to be
eaten for the time of their peregrination, our Sacrament more: it was to euery
man what he liked best, our Sacrament more: a litle thereof serued and sufficed
as wel as much, our Sacrament more: it was reserued for such dayes as it could not
be gathered, and our Sacrament much more: it was kept for a memorial in the arke
of the Testament, our Sacrament much more: the discontented and incredulous
murmured and gainsayed it, at our Sacrament much more, it sustained their bodies
in the desert, our Sacrament, both body and soule much more.
Aug. cont. duas. Ep. Pelag. li. 1. c. 19 & Ser. 2. de verb. Ap. c. 2.
52. How can this man?)
In the B. Sacrament, How is a Iewish word.
It came not to their mind that nothing was impossible to God, that wickedly
said, How can this man giue vs his flesh? but we may make great profit of their
sinne, beleeuing the Mysteries, and taking a lesson, neuer to say or once thinke,
How? for it is a Iewish word and worthy al punishment. So saith S.
Cyril. li. 4 c. 11 in Io. Neuertheles if one asked only for desire to learne
in humilitie, as our Lady did touching her hauing a child in her virginitie, then
he must take the Angels answer to her, That it is of the Holy Ghost. So saith S.
Damascene li. 4. c. 14.
53. Vnles you eate.)
The real presence.
Christ commending the Sacrament of the faithful vnto vs, said, Except you eate
&c. you can not haue life in you. So the life saith of life: and to him that
thinketh the life to be a lier, this meate shal be death and not life to him.
Aug. Ser. 2 de verb. Ap. c. 1. And S. Leo thus: *Because our Lord saith,
Except you eate &c. let vs so communicate that we nothing doubt of the truth of
Christs body and bloud: for that is receiued with mouth, which is beleeued in
hart: and they answer Amen in vaine, that dispute against that which they
receiue.
*Ser. 6. de ieiun. 7. mens.
53. And drinke.)
Receiuing in both kindes not necessarie.
This the Protestants alleage for the necessitie of receiuing in both kindes: but
in respect of themselues (who lightly hold al this chapter to pertaine nothing to
the Sacramental receiuing, but to spiritual feeding on Christ by faith only) it
can make nothing for one kind or other. And in respect of vs Catholikes, who
beleeue Christs whole Person both humanitie and Diuinitie, both flesh and bloud
to be in either forme, and to be wholy receiued no lesse in the first, then in the
second or in both, this place commandeth nothing for both the kindes.
53. You shal not haue life.)
The Sacramental receiuing of Christs bodie, not alwayes necessarie to saluation.
Though the Catholikes teach these wordes to be spoken of the Sacrament, yet they
meane not (no more then our Sauiour here doth) to exclude al from saluation, that
receiue not actually and Sacramentally vnder one or both kindes. For then
children that die after they be baptized and neuer receiued Sacramentally, should
perish: which to hold, were heretical.
The true meaning of S. Augustin’s words touching infants receiuing of the B.
Sacrament.
*Neither did S. Augustine meane, applying
these words to infants also, that they could not be saued without receiuing
sacramentally, as not only the Heretikes, but Erasmus did vnlearnedly mistake
him: but his sense is that they were by the right of their Baptisme ioyned to
Christs bodie Mystical, and thereby spiritually partakers of the other Sacrament
also of Christs bodie and bloud. As al Catholike men that be in prison, ioyning
with the Church of God in hart and desire to receiue and be partakers with the
Church of this Sacrament, and those specially that deuoutly heare Masse and
adore in presence the bodie and bloud of Christ, ioyning in hart with the Priest,
al these receiue life and fruit of the Sacrament, though at euery time they
receiue not sacramentally in one or both kinds. And although in the Primitiue
Church the holy Sacrament in the second kind were often giuen euen to infants to
sanctifie them, yet (as the holy Councel hath declared**) it was neuer ministred
vnto them with opinion that they could not be saued without it. And therfore the
Heretikes do vntruly charge the Church and the Fathers with that errour.
*Li. 1. de pec. merit. c. 20.
**conc. Tri. Ses. 21. c. 4.
54. I wil raise him.)
The effects of the B. Sacrament both in our bodie and soule.
As the Sonne liueth by the Father, euen so do we liue by his flesh,
saith S. Hilarie. li. 8. de Trin. And S. Cyril againe thus: *Though by
nature of our flesh we be corruptible, yet by participation of life we are reformed
to the propertie of life. For not only our soules were to be lifted vp by the Holy
Ghost to life euerlasting, but this rude grosse terrestrial body of ours is to be
reduced to immoralitie, by touching, tasting, and eating this agreable food of
Christs body. And when Christ saith: I wil raise him vp, he meaneth that this body
which he eateth, shal raise him. Our flesh (saith Tertullian**) eateth the
body and bloud of Christ, that the soule may also be fatted. Therfore they shal
both haue one reward at the Resurrection. And S. Irenæus, ***How do they
affirme that our bodies be not capable of life euerlasting, which is nourished by
the body and bloud of our Lord? Either let them change their opinion, or els cease
to offer the Eucharist. St. Gregorie Nyssene also saith: aThat liuely
bodie entering into our bodie, changeth it and maketh it like and immortal.
*Cyril li. 4. c. 14. 15.
**Tertul. de. resur. car. nu. 7.
***Li. 4. c. 34.
aNyss. in orat. cathech magna.
55. Meat indeed.)
The B. Sacrament is the true Manna and water of the rock.
Manna, was not the true meat: nor the water of the rocke, the drinke indeed: for
they did but driue away death or famine for a time and for this life. But the
holy Bodie of Christ is the true food nourishing to life euerlasting, and his
bloud the true drinke that driueth death away vtterly, for they be not the body
and bloud of a mere man, but of him that being joyned to life is made life: and
therfore are we the bodie and members of Christ, because by this benediction of
the mysterie we receive the Sonne of God himself. So saith S. Cyril li. 4.
c. 16 in Io.
58. He that eateth this bread.)
The whole grace and effect therof in one kind; and therefore the people not
defrauded.
*By this place the holy Councel proueth that for the grace and effect of the
Sacrament, which is the life of the soule, there is no difference whether a man
receiue both kinds or one. Because our Sauiour who before attributed life to the
eating and drinking of his bodie and bloud, doth here also affirme the same
effect, which is life euerlasting, to come of eating only vnder one forme.
Therfore the Heretikes be seditious calumniatours that would make the people
beleeue, the Catholike Church and Priests to haue defrauded them of the grace and
benefit of one of the kinds in the Sacrament.
Receiuing in one or both kinds, indifferent, according to the holy Churches
appointment.
Nay, it is they that haue defrauded the world, by taking away both the real
substance of Christ, and the grace from one kind and both kinds, and from al other
Sacraments. The Church doth only (by the wisedom of God’s Spirit and by
instruction of Christ and his Apostles, according to time and place, for God’s most
honour, the reuerence of the Sacrament, and the peoples most profit thereby)
dispose of the manner and order how the Priest, how the people shal receiue, and al
other Particular points, which himself (saith S. Augustine**) did not
take order for, that he might commit that to the Apostles, by whom he was to
dispose his Churches affaires. Though both he and the Apostles and the Fathers
of the primitiue Church left vs example of receiuing vnder one kind, ***Christ
at Emmaus. The Apostles Act. 2,42.
Authoritie of Scriptures and the Primitiue Church for receiuing in one kind.
The primitiue Church in giuing the bloud only to children, Cypr. li. de lapsis,
nu. 10. In reseruing most commonly the bodie only, Tertul. li. 2 ad vxo. nu.
4. Cypr. li. de lapsis, nu. 10. In houseling the sicke therwith, Euseb. Ec.
hist. li. 6 c. 36. In the holy Eremits also that receiued and reserued it
commonly and not the bloud, in the wildernes, Basil. ep. ad Cæsariam
Patritiam. And in diuers other cases which were too long to rehearse.
The causes of the Churches practise and ordinance concerning one kind.
Whereby the Church being warranted and in the ruling of such things fully taught
by God’s spirit, as wel for the reprouing of certaine heresies, that Christ God and
man was not whole and al in euery part of the Sacrament, as specially for that the
Christian people being now enlarged, and the communicants often so many at once,
that neither so much wine could be conueniently consecrated, nor without manifold
accidents of sheding or abusing be receiued (whereof the Protestants haue no
regard, because it is but common wine which they occupie, but the Church knowing it
to be Christs owne bloud, must haue al dreadful regard) therfore I say she hath
decreed and for some hundreth yeares put in vse, that the Priest saying Masse,
should alwayes both consecrate and also receiue both kinds, because he must
expresse liuely the Passion of Christ, and the separation of his bloud from his
bodie in the same, and for to imitate the whole action and institution as wel in
sacrificing as receiuing, as to whom properly it was said: aDoe
this; for that was spoken onely to such as have power thereby to offer and
consecrate: But the Lay men, and the Clergie also when they do not execute or say
Masse themselues, should receiue in one kind, being thereby no lesse partakers of
Christs whole Person and grace, then if they receiued both. For (as S. Paul
saithb) He that eateth the hostes, is partaker of the Altar.
He that eateth, saith he: for though there were drink-offerings or libaments ioyned
lightly to euery Sacrifice, yet it was enough to eate only of one kind, for to be
partaker of the whole.
*Conc. Trid. Ses. 21. c. 1.
**Ep. 118. c. 6 ad Ianuariaum.
***Luke 24,15.
aLuke 22,19. 1. Corinth. 11.
b1. Corinth. 10,18.
62. If you shal see.)
Christ insinuateth that faithles men shal not beleeue his presence in the B.
Sacrament, becaue he is ascended.
Our Sauiour seemeth to insinuate, that such as beleeue not his words touching the
holy Sacrament, and thinke it impossible for him to giue his Body to be eaten in
so many places at once, being yet in earth, should be much more scandalized and
tempted after they saw or knew him to be ascended into Heauen. Which is proued
true in the Capharnaites of this time. Whose principal reason against Christs
presence in the Sacrament is, that he is ascended into Heauen: yea, who are so
bold as to expound this same sentence for themselues thus, It is not this body or
flesh which I wil giue you, for that I wil carie with me to Heauen. Whereby if
they meant only that the condition and qualities of his body in Heauen should be
other then in the Sacrament, it were tolerable: for S. Augustin speaketh sometime
in that sense. But to deny the substance of the body to be the same, that is
wicked.
63. The flesh profiteth nothing.)
If this speach were spoken in the sense of the Sacramentaries, it would take
away Christs Incarnation, manhood, and death, no lesse then his corporal
presence in the Sacrament. For if his flesh were not profitable, al these
things were vaine.
The Capharnaites grosse vnderstanding of Christs flesh to be giuen or eaten.
And, how this flesh doth profit, and not profit.
Therfore CHRIST denieth not his owne flesh to be profitable, but that their
grosse and carnal conceiuing of his words, of his flesh, and of the manner of
eating the same, was vnprofitable: which is plaine by the sentence folowing,
where he warneth them, that his words be spirit and life, of high Mystical
meaning, and not vulgarly and grosly to be taken, as they tooke them. And
it is the vse of the Scripture to call mans natural sense, reason, and carnal
resisting or not reaching supernatural truths, flesh or bloud, as, Flesh
and bloud reuealed not this to thee &c. Mat. 16.
This carnalitie then of theirs, stood in two points specially: first, that they
imagined that he would kil himself, and cut and mangle his flesh into parts,
and so giue it them raw or rost to be eaten among them. Which could not be
meant, saith S. Augustin: *for that had conteined an heinous and barbarous fact;
and therfore they might and should haue been assured, that he would command no
such thing: but some other sweet sense to be of his hard, mystical, or
figuratiue words, and to be fulfilled in a Sacrament, mysterie, and a maruelous
diuine sort, otherwise then they could comprehend.
Christs flesh giueth life because it is the flesh of God and man.
Secondly, they did erre touching his flesh, in that they tooke it to be the
flesh of a mere man, and of a dead man also, when it should come to be eaten: of
which kind of flesh Christ here pronounceth, that it profiteth nothing. Whereupon
S. Cyril saith: **This body is not of Peter or Paul or any other like, but of
Christ IESVS who is the life itself: and therfore this Body giueth life, the very
fulnes of the Diuinitie dwelling in it. And the holy Councel of Ephesus in
the 11. Anathematisme expounded also by the said S. Cyril: The Eucharist is not
the body of any common person (for the flesh of a common man could not quicken)
but of the WORD itself But the Heretike Nestorius dissolueth the vertue of
this Mysterie, holding mans flesh only to be in the Eucharist. Thus thee. And
S. Ignatius cited of Theodorete,*** and many other Fathers have the like. Whereby
we may see that it commeth of the Diuinitie and Spirit (without which Christs flesh
can not be) that this Sacrament giueth life.
*August. Doct. Chr. li. 3. c. 13.
**Li. 4. c. 23. in Io.
***Ignatius apud Theodor. dial. 3.
64. That beleeue not.)
Iudas the chiefe of them that beleeue not the real presence.
It is lacke of faith, you see here, that causeth men to spurne against this high
truth of the Sacrament: as also it may be learned here, that it is the great and
merciful guift of God that Catholike men do against their senses and carnal
reasons, beleeue and submit themselues to the humble acknowledging of this
Mysterie: lastly, that it may wel *by Christs insinuation of Iudas, be gathered,
that he specially spurned against our Maisters speaches of the holy Sacrament.
*vers. 64.
66. Went back.)
Heretikes beleeue not the real presence, because they see bread and wine: as the
Iewes beleeued not his Godhead because of the shape of a poore man.
It can be no maruel to vs now that so many reuolt from the Church, by offense or
scandal vniustly taken at Christs body and bloud in the Sacrament: seeing many of
his Disciples that saw his wonderful life, doctrine, and miracles, forsooke Christ
himself, vpon the speach and promise of the same Sacrament. For the mysterie of it
is so supernatural and diuine in itself, and withal so low and base for our sakes,
by the shew of the formes of these terrene elements vnder which it is, and we eate
it; that the vnfaithful and infirme doe so stumble at Christ in the Sacrament, as
the Iewes and Gentils did at Christ in his humanitie. For, the causes of
contradictions of the Incarnation and Transsubstantion be like. And it may be
verily deemed, that whosoeuer now can not beleeue the Sacrament to be Christ,
because it is vnder the formes of bread and wine, and is eaten and drunken, would
not then haue beleeued that Christ had been God, because he was in shape of man,
and crucified. To conclude, it was not a figure nor a mysterie of bare bread and
wine, nor any Metaphorical or Allegorical speach, that could make such a troup of
his Disciples reuolt at once.
The disciples reuolting at Christs words, proue that he spake not metaphorically,
as at other times.
When he said he was a doore, a vine, a way, a Pastour, and such like (vnto which
kind of speaches the Protestants ridiculously resemble the words of the holy
Sacrament) who was so mad to mistake him, or to forsake him for the same? For the
Apostles at the least would haue plucked them by the sleeues, and said: Goe not
away my Masters, he speaketh parables. The cause therfore was their incredulitie,
and the height of the Mysterie, for that they neither knew the meanes how it might
be present, nor would beleeue that he was able to giue his flesh to be eaten in
many places. And euen such is the vnbeleefe of the Heretikes about this matter at
this day.
68. Peter answered.)
As S. Peter beareth the person of al beleeuing Catholikes: so Iudas of al
vnbeleeuing Heretikes. He being the first Arch-heretike; and this against the B.
Sacrament, the first heresie.
Peter answereth for the Twelue, not knowing that Iudas in hart was already
naught, and beleeued not Christs former wordes touching the B. Sacrament, but
was to reuolt afterward as wel as the other. *Wherein as Peter beareth the person
of the Church and al Catholike men, that for no difficulty of his word, nor for
any reuolt (be it neuer so general) of Schismatikes, Heretikes, or Apostataes,
either for this Sacrament or any other Article, wil euer forsake Christ: So Iudas
was the chiefest suborner, maintayner, and father of this heresie against the real
presence of Christs bodie and bloud in the B. Sacrament, and of the reuolt from
him for the same: as S. Augustin teacheth in enarratione Psal. 54. aduer. 22. &
Psal. 55. ad ver. 7. declaring withal that this was the first heresie against
Christs doctrine, and worthily commending S. Peter for his humble obedience, in
receiuing Christs speach, and firmly beleeuing his words to be true and good,
which he did not yet vnderstand. By whose example therfore when company draweth vs
to reuolt, let vs say thus: Lord, whither or to whom shal we goe, when we haue
forsaken thee? to Caluin, Luther, or such, and forsake thee and thy Church with
the vnfaithful multitude? No, thou hast the words of life, and we beleeue thee,
and thy Church wil not nor can not beguile vs. **Thou hast (saith the
same S. Augustine) life euerlasting in the ministration of thy body and
bloud. And a litle after: Thou art life euerlasting itself, and thou giuest
not in thy flesh and bloud but that which thyself art.
*Cypr ep. 55. nu.
**Tract. 27. in Euang. Io.