Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to the Holy Scriptures

pitched a stone on an end, and called ifc God's face; yet had we not been any more bound to believe that it had been the very face of God, than if Jacob had done it. The almightiness of God standeth not in that he is able to do all that our foolish, lewd1 thoughts may imagine. But because all power is his and of him, and that he doth all he will, and hath made all of nought, and can bring all to nought again, and can do all that includeth not contrary to the truth and verity that God hath put in his creatures; and because he can do things impossible for man, or any other creature to do, or to think how they should be done; therefore he is called the Lord Almighty. But because to brawl about such possibility or impossibility is the lust of sophisters, and also the desire of the devil to quench the profession of our baptism, and to wipe out the image of Christ out of our hearts, and a thing end less; therefore I count it wickedness to wade forth in it, and to give them that seek it an occasion perpetually to scold. The negative may a man hold, till they can prove the affirmative.

Moreover, if bread be the very body of Christ, whether abiding the very body still or transubstantiated, and enjoy the glory of the soul of Christ, and also of the Godhead, it seemeth impossible to be avoided but that Christ was made man and died: also bread, which seemeth to some a great inconvenience2. Howbeit that great promotion3 of bread, and also that high power of priests above all angels4, I amit5 also, to avoid all brawling. But one reason I have, unto which I cleave somewhat, and it is this.

All that is between God and man in the scripture is for An excellent man's necessity, and not for any need that God hath thereof. And other spiritual profit can none have by that faith in the sacrament, than to be taught thereby to believe in Christ our Saviour, and to do good to his neighbour. Now is that be lief and love had as well, and rather better, (as is above proved,) without such faith than with it: ergo, where the scripture compelleth to no such belief, it is wickedness to make it a necessary article of our faith, and to slay them, that cannot think that it ought to be believed.

Notwithstanding all these reasons, and the damnable idolatry which the papists have committed with the sacra ment, yet, whether they affirm the body and blood to be present with the bread and wine, or the bread and wine to be turned and transubstantiated into the body and blood, I am therewith content (for unity's sake) if they will there cease, and let him be there only to testify and confirm the testa ment or covenant made in Christ's blood and body; for which cause only Christ instituted the sacrament. But and if they will rage further with their blind reasons of their subtle sophistry and devilish idolatry, and say, where Christ's blood is, there is his body, and where his body is, there is his soul, and where his soul is, there is the6 Godhead and the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and there men ought to pray, and say, ' 0 Father, which art present with thy Son Christ, under bread and wine, or in form of bread and wine' — if (I say) they so rave, then as the old prophet for like idolatry denieth God to dwell in the temple, or to have pleasure in sacrifice of blood of goats, sheep and calves; even so deny I the body of Christ to be any more in the sacra- ment, than God was in the golden calves, which Jeroboam set up to be prayed to, the one in Bethel, and the other in Dan: for though God be present everywhere, yet if heaven of heavens cannot compass him to make him a dwelling-place (as the scripture testifieth), and much less the temple that was at Jerusalem^ how should he have a dwelling-place in a little wafer or crumb of bread? God dwelleth not in the temple; neither did our fathers, which were of the true faith in the old testament, pray to God as present in the temple: but the i Kings viii. name of God only was in the temple, 1 Kings viii. and his law and covenants and wonderful deeds were therein written in signs, and were there preached and testified continually of the true priests and prophets unto the people. The fathers of the true faith came thither furthermore, for the fervent love which they had towards the laws and covenants of God. For the which prophets Salomon prayed so earnestly unto the Lord God, saying: " Hear thou, 0 God, in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all nations of the earth may know thee, and fear thy i Kings viii. name, as do this people Israel, &c." Read the third book of of Kings, the eighth chapter. When God delighted only in the faith of the offerer, which believed in God only for all mercy, taking the sacrifice for a sure token and earnest of the mercy of God, certified by that sign, that God loved them, and was at one with them for Christ's sake to come: as we should be certified by the sacrament of God with us for Christ's death that is past1. And Christ taught us in our prayers to look up to heaven and say, Our Father, which art in heaven; and he himself in all his prayers did lift up his eyes to heaven to his Father; and so did he when he insti tuted the sacrament, and rehearsed the words of the covenant over bread and wine, as it is written Matthew xxvi.; Mark xiv.; Luke xxii.; 1 Cor. xi.; in these words, " Jesus took bread," &c.

Christ, though he affirmed himself to be the Son of God, and his Father to be in him, yet he taught not his disciples to direct the prayer to the Father in him, but up to the Father in heaven; neither lift he up his eyes, or prayer, to his Father in the sacrament, but to his Father in heaven. I know divers, and divers men know me, which love me as I do them: yet if I should pray them, when I meet them in the street openly, they would abhor me; but if I pray them where they be appointed to meet me secretly, they will hear me and accept my request. Even so though God's presence be everywhere, yet will he be prayed to up to the place only where we shall see him, and where he would have us to long for to be.

Moreover if I grant you that the blood of Christ is in the cup, it will [not] follow that his body is there also; neither when I grant that his body is in the bread, or under the form of bread, will it follow that his soul is there too. Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only: wherefore as the bread is no similitude of2 his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm, that his blood is there present. And he did institute the wine to be the sacrament of his blood only. And haply it was red wine, the more lovely3 to represent it. Now as the wine in no similitude doth re present the body, so am I not bound, nor ought to affirm, that his body is there present.

Ye say that Christ is so mighty, that though he stood mortal before his disciples' eyes, yet he was able to make the same body that same time to be in the sacrament immortal, and to be under every little piece of bread or of the sacra ment, though it be no greater than a mote in the sun, and that as long, as great, and thick as he stood before them. If he were so mighty, why is he not as mighty to make his blood to be alone, and his body alone? His blood, body and soul were each alone at his death, and while the body lay in the sepulchre.

Finally, Christ said, " This is my4 blood that shall be shed:" ergo, it is true now, This is my blood that was shed. Now the blood of Hales5, and the blood that is in many other places, men say is the blood that was shed; ergo, that blood is in the sacrament, if any bo: but I am not bound to believe or ought to affirm, that the blood that is at Hales is animate with the soul of Christ, or that his body is there present.

Wherefore, to avoid this endless brawling, which the devil no doubt hath stirred up, to turn the eyes of our souls from the everlasting covenant made us in Christ's blood and body, and to noscl us in idolatry, which is trust and con fidence in false worshipping of God; and to quench first the faith to Christ- ward, and then the love due to our neighbour; therefore methinketh that the party that hath professed the faith of Christ, and the love of his neighbour, ought of duty to bear each other, as long as the other opinion is not plain wicked through false idolatry, nor contrary to the salvation that is in Christ, nor against the open and manifest doctrine of Christ and his apostles, nor contrary to the general ar ticles of the faith of the general church of Christ, which are confirmed with open scripture; in which articles never a true church in any land dissenteth.

There be many texts of1 the scripture, and therefore diversely expounded of holy doctors, and taken in contrary senses, when no text hath contrary senses indeed, or more than one single sense: and yet that hurteth not; neither arc the holy doctors therefore heretics, as the exposition destroyeth not the faith in Christ's blood, nor is contrary to the open scripture or general articles. No more doth it hurt to say that the body and blood are not in the sacrament. Neither doth it help to say they be there, but hurt exceedingly, if ye infer that the soul is there too, and that God must be there prayed to; when, as our kingdom is not on the earth, even so we ought not to direct our prayers to any God in earth, but up where our kingdom is, and whither our Re deemer and Saviour is gone, and there sitteth on the right hand of his Father, to pray for us, and to offer our prayers unto his Father, and to make them for his sake acceptable. Neither ought he, that is bound under pain of damnation to love his brother as Christ loved him, to hate, to persecute, and to slay his brother for blind zeal to any opinion, that neither letteth nor hindereth to salvation that is in Christ: as they which pray to God in the sacrament not only do, but also through that opinion, as they have lost love to their neighbours, even so have they lost the true faith in the covenant made in Christ's blood and body: which covenant only is that which saveth. And to testify this, was the sa crament instituted only.

GIVE diligence, reader, I exhort thee, that thou como with a pure mind, and, as the scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health and of eternal life; by the which, if we repent and believe them, we are born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ: which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath purchased life, love, favour, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised in the scriptures to them that believe and obey God; and standeth between us and wrath, ven geance, curse, and whatsoever the scripture threateneth against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist and con sent not in their hearts to the law of God, that it is right, holy, just, and ought so to be. Mark the plain and manifest places of the scriptures, and in doubtful places see thou add no interpretations contrary to them; but (as Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith. Note the difference of the law and of the gospel. The one asketh and requireth, the other pardoneth and forgiveth. The one threateneth, the other promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The gospel significth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel-book: for if the law were away, thou couldest not know what the gospel meant; even as thou couldest not see pardon and grace, except the law rebuked thee, and declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass. Repent and believe the gospel, as

saith Christ in the first of Mark. Apply alway the law to thy deeds, whether thou find lust in thine heart to the lawward; and so shalt thou no doubt repent, and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the law. Apply the gospel, that is to say the promises, unto the deserving of Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not despair; but shalt feel God as a kind and merciful father. And his Spirit shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall be given thee at the last, (though not by and by1, lest thou shouldest forget thy self and be negligent,) and all threatenings shall be forgiven thee for Christ's blood's sake, to whom commit thyself alto gether, without respect either of thy good deeds, or of thy bad.

Them that are learned christianly I beseech, forasmuch as I am sure, and my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and faithfully, I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge and under standing, that the rudeness of the work now at the first time offend them not; but that they consider how that I had no man to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had interpreted the same or such like thing in the scripture beforetime. Moreover, even very necessity, and cumbrance (God is record) above strength, which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast ourselves, caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time to come (if God have appointed us there unto) we will give it his full shape, and put out, if ought be added superfluously, and add to, if ought be overseen through negligence; and will enforce to bring to compendiousness that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a table to expound the words which are not commonly used, and shew how the scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not another; and will endeavour ourselves, as it [* That is, immediately.]