TO THE MEN OF ROME, as well LAIQVES, AS CLERIQVES.
PRiests make their Maker Christ, yee must not doubt.
They eat, drink, box him vp, and beare about.
Substance of things they turne: nor is this all;
For both the Signes must hold in severall.
Hee's whole
Vnder the shewes, as they ta [...]ke of bread and wine.
ith' bread, whole ith' cuppe.They eat him whole: whole they suppe;
Whole ith' Cake, and whole ith cuppe.
This with you all doeth goe for veritie▪
To hold contrary is meer heresie.
This is, pure, pure Catholique, pure divine.
And thus feast ye; he with his Christ, thou with thine;
Without bread and wine indeed:
For this is your Roman Creed;
Whom ye make, on him ye feed.
[Page 6] The bread and wine themselues away are gone.
Shewes of them tary still, but Substance none.
They make their God, and then they eat him vp.
They swallow downe his flesh, and blood vp sup.
They'll taste no flesh on frydayes (that's not good)
But of their new-made God, and of his blood.
And as the Whale did Ionas, so they eat
Him vp aliue, body and soule, as meat.
As men eat Oysters, so on him they feed;
Whole, and aliue, and raw, and yet not bleed.
This cookerie, voyed of humanitie,
Is held in Rome for sound divinitie.
And is not this strange to heare,
That God, whom, ye say, ye feare,
Ye should eat, as belly cheare?
The Graver, Painter, Baker, euen these three,
Your Priests haue reason for to magnifie.
Perhaps the Baker thinks, he merits more▪
Yet both advance their honor, and their store.
For they with their gentle feat
Help them to mony & meat,
Making Gods, to begge and eat.
And now me thinks I heare old Laban say,
Gen. 32.
See, they haue stolne and borne my Gods away.
Me thinks,
Iudg. 18. 2. 24.
I heare and see that mountineer,Michah of Ephraim; who did idols feare,
Chiding with the Danits, for that they had
Took's Priest, and Gods away, which made him mad▪
Mee thinks I see the Philistins bereft
2 Sam. 5. 21
Of their vaine Gods,
1 Chron. 14. 12.
which they to Dauid left:And how that noble Worthy made them bee
Destroyed of his souldjers presentlie.
[Page 7] Both men and beasts (a thing to be deplored)
May bear away the things, of you adored.
The things yee worship with your heart and minde,
Men like your selues, can burne, can melt, can grinde.
Baruchs base things (a shame it is to think)
Bar. 6. 12. 22.
Can marre the things, ye worship, and make stinck.
And is not this great folly,
More then childish vanity,
To dote on things so silly?
The foolish Heathens were not all so mad:
For they devoured not the Gods, they had.
The
Vid Basil. schol in Psal. 11 [...]. Lactan. lib 2 cap 2. Aug. in Psal. 113. [...]o [...]. C. 2.
wiser knew their Vanities were wood,Or such like stuffe: not Gods, nor flesh and blood.
But yee, as if bewitcht, do count, and call
That poore thing God, Maker, and Lord of all,
Which is plaine bread in substance, very bread,
Made of wheat-flower, ground, with mans hand, and knead.
This, which is bread, which all men so will say,
Which haue not lost all sense, or thrown't away,
This ye do say, ye do belieue it is,
Not bread in trueth, but the true God of blisse;
Euen Iesus Christ, God-Man, flesh, blood, and bones,
Wherein y'are stupider then they, then stones.
O God! What is a man, euen at his best,
If not of thee with heauenly wisedome blest?
Grievous errors doth he swallow,
And in sin perversly wallow,
Not regarding what may follow.
Poore Laique! There is one thing more for thee;
The Cuppe of Blessing thou art forc'd to flee.
Concil. Constant. sess. 1 [...]
Eat thou mayest by law: but thou mayest not suppe;
[Page 8] The Priest is he, that's worthy of the cuppe.
Take Christ thou mayst under the breaden signe:
But not touch him under the shew of wine.
A Prince perhaps by favour with his lippe
Is suffer'd after's Priest to take a sippe.
And is this a Priestly feat,
Thus the people for to cheat,
Who should drink as well, as eat?
But Lay-men are not Priests: (who sayes they are?)
And therefore ought not in that Cuppe to share,
Why? Are not Princes lay men? yet They may,
And do drink of the cup, as men do say.
T [...]'eleuen, or twelue, (for chuse ye whether)
When they first receiued altogether,
Their Maister being by, then were they all
As Sheep: the text Disciples does them call.
And furthermore, If lay-men may not drink,
Because th'are such, Why may they not then think
It lawfull for them to refuse to eat,
For the selfe same reason, of that sacred meat?
Or, who can justly say, and not deluded,
That Laiques from the Cuppe are quite excluded,
When Christ sayes, Drinke ye All of this, as tho
He spake to Priests alone, and to no moe;
And yet that, when he sayd those Words, Take, Eate,
To Priests and people too he meant that meat?
At Rome no drink's allow'd, but only meat:
Yet Paul doth bid men drink,
1 Cor. 11.
as well, as eat.There sits one with brazen face,
That usurps a Bishops place,
Who dares thus Christs flock disgrace.
Now to the Man of Might, who sayes, he can
[Page 9] Doe that, which is not in the power, of man;
Who can make Christ of bread (hee's so diuine)
As Christ of water once did make true wine.
Angell, nor King, nor Artizan of skill
Can this; the Priest alone, and he at's will.
Others, who can make bread out of their grist,
Must leaue their bread to him, to make it Christ.
Make stones to be men we know that God can:
And the Priest braggs he can make bread a man.
Make a God of a man we know men can:
But his art lyes in making God a man;
So, as if Christ had not took flesh before,
Yet without flesh he should be now no more.
Nor can the nimblest Baker work a cake
So soone,
Per v [...]rba cō s [...]cr [...] ver [...] & [...] panis, ita producitur & quasi generatur Christus i [...] altari, ade [...] potenter & effica [...]ter, ut si C [...]ristas necdum esset incarnatus, per haec verba Hoc est corpus me [...]m, inc [...]rna [...]ctur, cor [...]u [...] (que) huma [...]um assumeret, [...] graves theologi docent. Cornelius Cornelij a lapide Comm [...]. in E [...]a [...] 7. 14.
as he his cake a man can make.Four words, repeated with a voyce submisse,
Will serue to make vp's man and God, I wisse.
These four alone, Hoc Est Corpus Meum,
Will work the feat: there needs no greater summe.
Indeed, the Priests intention should concurre,
Or els the work may chance to take a blurre.
For, as they do say, This most Rare Invention
Will scarcely take without the Priests intention.
But yet here we must all know,
That all Priests can not thus doe;
The Roman can: but no moe.
Naturall Parents, be they nee'r so good,
Are Gods instruments but of flesh and blood.
To get, or make a Soule's not in their power:
But he a perfit soule can make each houer.
Both soule and body are alike to him:
That shall not want a power, nor this a limme.
[Page 10] Paren [...]s their children get: they make them not.
They get them like themselues, with staine and spot,
But he no gett [...]r is allow'd to bee,
And wife he does by vow with horror flee.
Hee's only a maker, and but of one:
If he make not that one, he makes just none,
And, whereas children by degrees do grow,
That, which he makes, is made at once: not so,
Full holy also, pure, voyd of all sin,
Hauing no soyle without, no fault within.
Yet he, that makes him, is not without both:
Which if not he, yet others often loth.
And which is strange, he may not get a man:
But yet make God he may, and thinks he can▪
And, whereas others works may be destroyed,
His, he belieues, is not to be annoyed.
I ask then of this man, this man of might,
Who does so farre surmount each mortall wight;
Is thy mouth the virgins womb? Is bread her seed?
Are thy words the Holy Ghost? Is this our Creed?
What? Does a Temple make the Architect,
That thou of bread thy maker the should'st erect▪
Or does a Servant vse to make his Lord,
That Priests to theirs a beeing do afford;
O presumptuous Vndertaker!
Neuer Cake could make a Baker:
And shall a Priest make his Maker?
Indeed, we see some men by Priests made stones:
But who sees them make bread flesh blood, and bones▪
They rather merit fayth, that say, they can
Sooner make a man bread, then bread a man.
That, though Vnnaturall, has often been:
[Page 11] This, Supernaturall, was yet neuer seen.
Tell me: Was not Christ before thy bearing?
And hundreds of yeers afore thy sheering?
Was he not a man before thine annointing?
And must he yet be made at thine appointing?
Does he not still abide in humane flesh,
That yet he must be made of thee afresh?
And sooner too, then thou thy self wast made,
Eyther man, or of this Man-making trade.
What a kinde of brow hast thou,
That doest say, Thou mak'st him now,
Since thou took'st thy Priestly vow?
Hast thou Priests power from the man Christ receiu'd?
So thou wilt say, or els I am deceiu'd.
With what face then dar'st thou say, Thou him makest,
Of whom thy selfe and power, thou say'st, thou takest?
As if a Iustice should say, he makes the King,
Of whome he does receiue his Iusticing:
As if a childe should say, he makes his sire,
Or color'd clothes should say, they make their diar.
Thus ye dimme the noone-day-light,
And gainst sense and reason fight.
Holding, Writlesse, what's not right.
Perhaps you'll say, Christ Iesus is not made
Of bread: but that the bread away does fade,
And that his body followes in it's stead,
It beeing onely there now, and not bread.
Well: be it so, yet thus his bodie's made
Here still on earth to be: which is gainsayd,
By Christ himselfe, by Peter,
Iohn 12 and 17. Act. 3.
and our Creed:To whom we could adde more, if there were need.
For Austin, Vigill, and others agree,
[Page 12] That Christ is not now on earth bodilie.
And vaine it is to plead the power divine,
Which out of darknes can make light to shine.
Which of just nothing can make things to bee,
And can make dead things liue, and stone-blinde see,
And most easily doe the things, which can
Be comprehended of no braines of man.
Make it appear by holy Scriptures light,
That God does will and work these things, ye fight
For, with such earnestnesse, and then we will
Confesse your power, and applaud your skill.
But till ye proue by Written word,
That God to these things does accord,
To make fayth of them were absurd.
We read of Christ twice made: and that is all;
Of Woman, and vnder Law, Is this small,
Vnlesse thou also make him at thy will
Gal. 4.
By thine high creating power, and thy skill?
Is't not ynough for him, and for us all,
That he was Once borne, and Once vnder thrall,
But that he must yet also, day by day,
By you be made, and offred, as ye say?
So, for fayth ye fancy teach,
And for truth mens dreames ye preach,
Making in Gods Church a breach.
What a silly thing is this, thou makest,
Which for the Lord Iesus Christ, thou takest?
Which, Idol-like, can neyther heare, nor talk,
Nor see, nor feele, nor smell, nor one jo [...]t walk,
Which can do nothing for ought does appear:
But's fit all wrong, that's offer'd, for to bear.
Which can not saue it self from catte, nor Dogge,
[Page 13] From Rat, nor Mouse, nor from the grunting Hogge.
Fy that such a sorry thing,
A mouse can in danger bring,
Should be counted for thy King,
Hezekiah sayes the Assyrian king
The Gentiles Gods into the fire did fling,
Because they were not Gods: for so he sayth;
Is. 37. 19.
Which plainly shewes the fondnesse of your fayth.
For this, ye say the Priest hath made, ye call
God almightie: and yet the same may fall,
Or by plaine force be cast into the fire,
By Turks or Moores, or flung into the mire.
May not men then boldly say,
It does your handy-work bewray,
When they see it hurl'd away?
What a kinde of vile servitude is this,
Thou mak'st him serue, of whom thou look'st for blisse;
To coop him in a piece of bread in show,
Where he must stay a time, and must not goe?
A pretty Godlin sure; now in thine hand,
Then boxed vp, to carry by sea, or land.
Now in thy mouth, and by and by ith' maw:
Oth' Altar now, then in some solemne shaw,
Riding about ith' streets, to grace that man,
Who dares do that, which justly no man can.
Yet more; This God, ye seeme so to adore,
Ye basely prostitute to knaue and Whore;
Teaching that the Wicked his flesh may eat,
Whereas Christ Iesus is to such no meat.
Ioh. 6. 51.
For he,
Ioh. 6. 56.
that eats his fles;h and drinks his blood,Shall liue:
Aug. de civi. dei. li. 21. ca. 25 Bedain
and therefore sure he must be good.Yea he,
1. Cor. 6.
that eats Christs flesh, in Christ doeth dwell:[Page 14] But they in him do dwell, that's kept for hell.
He must be of Christs flesh, that eats his flesh:
And onely those with it he does refresh.
Indeed,
Aug. in Ioh. tract 26.
the Sacrament thereof ill menMay eat: but bane it is vnto them then.
But it it selfe Whosoever does eat,
Ambros. de sacram. lib. 5. cap. 4.
To him it is no bane, but wholesome meat;
Able to nourish, & preserue the spirit,
And to do that, which no man can by's merit.
He,
Iohan. 6. 57.
that eats of this bread, that eats of mee,Shall liue by me, sayth Christ, eternallie.
And he eats Christ,
Aug. trac. 26 in Iohan. & serm. circa sacr. fer. pasc.
that does aright belieue,And being knit unto him does receiue,
And draw forth of him that by fayth, which may
Sustaine, preserue, and feed him night and day.
Whereas your Christ, ye say, ye take and eat
With hand and mouth, both good and bad, as meat,
I ween, ye say not now, ye teare and grinde
Him with your teeth in pieces, as I finde.
But, that ye mouth him, that ye all professe,
All, all of you alike, both more and lesse.
O the great stupidity
In absolute foolery,
And sencelesse impietie!
What's become of all those Christs, Priests haue made?
Doe all those hostes of wonder bide? or fade?
Doe they stay below? Or ascend on high?
Or turne they back to bread, and wine? Or die?
Or are any by digestion wrought,
And into mens spirits, or bodies, brought?
Or is not he, that yet in heauen does stay,
Able to feed and keep vs every way,
[Page 15] But that there must be still a new creation
Of him, after your strange imagination?
One Christ bides: but all those fly.
One Christ liues: but all those dy.
One is true: the rest a ly.
When ye haue eat them,
Exod. 14.
ye may say, as of yore;The eye,
Ioh 20.
that hath seen them, shall see them no more.He abides, that is aboue.
Him we feare, and him we loue.
These below doe nothing proue.
Alas, alas, there needs no fabrication
Of him still by Priests for mans sustentation.
Iesus Christ both yesterday,
Hebr. 13.
and to day,Is our food, and rock, the Selfe-same, for ay.
Great need we haue all to take him,
And feare, least we should forsake him:
But can not, nor need not make him.
Hony we read found in a Lyon dead:
Iudg. 14.
But not of Wormes in God incarnate bred.
Yet in this thing, for Christ ye doe adore,
And whose almightie ayd ye do implore,
Euen in this very thing a worme hath bred,
Euen on this very thing a worme hath fed▪
The silly Ientles may in these things breed:
Plain cralling Magots may on these things feed.
For shame then forsake this toy,
Which the Church does so annoy,
And in truth delight and joy.
Ye shew vs clothes, which▪ ye say, Saints haue worne,
As ye would perswade vs, which are not torne▪
As yet with time, but uncorrupt, as were
Th'Izraelites in their walk of fourty yere.
Nehe. 9. 21.
[Page 16] And yet many an age is come, and gon,
Since the Saints did last put them off, or on,
Whereof I finde your reason to be such;
Forsooth, their sacred bodyes did them touch.
Why then should putrefaction at all
These Accidents, ye talk so off, befall?
How is't that vermine are in them ingendred,
Seeing Christs blessed body's in them tendred?
How is't, that filthines is there discouer'd,
Where Iesus Christ, our Lord, God-Man lyes cover'd.
Is't, because his body can not them touch?
Or for that of vertue it has not much?
Or is't, because theirs his did farre exceed?
Or els for that no other Wonders need?
Yet such a Wonder, showen vnto the eye,
Would with men be of no small potencye,
Being voyd of fraud, and no forged tale:
Whereas your, so much talk'd of, Wonders fayle;
Things, which neyther sense, nor Scriptuees doe teach:
But which euen ye your selues do feigne, & preach.
Indeed, we would confesse you made,
If sense or Scriptures lent you aid:
But by both them ye are gainsayd.
Saint Austin writes,
Tract. 59 in Iohan.
euen what himself belieued,That the Disciples Iesus Christ receiued,
That they that heauen-come bread of life did eat,
Which is to true Belieuers drinck, and meat.
Yet Iudas, who to avarice was wed,
Ate not the Lord, but onely ate his bread.
But by your learning, seeing that the bread
Is turn'd into Christs flesh, on's flesh he fed.
[Page 17] For seeing Christ vnder those showes doth lye,
Eate Christ he must, which Austin does denye;
Saying that he ate the bread of the Lord
Against the Lord, A thing to be abhorr'd.
Neither are bare shewes of bread bread in kinde,
And therefore Austin was not of your minde.
For he held the Traytor on bread did feed:
Whereas yee say, There's nought, but shewes, indeed.
Yet one word more,
Absit a nobis vt [...]a, qu [...]e per sensus corporis didicimus, vera [...]sse dubitemus. Aug. de Trinit. li. 15. cap. 12.
Because ye doe from henceSend packing with disdaigne all humane sense.
Far be it from vs, sayes the selfe-same Father,
That we should be at all in doubt, or waver,
But rest assured that, what senses pure,
And vncorrupt, doe teach vs, that is sure,
And true, the very selfe-same things, they seem:
No other things, then those, we do them deem.
I pray you, shew then, why we should not trust
Our senses here, as if they were accurst,
Sith that in other precepts of the Lord
They stand us in great stead to keepe his word.
For by our sense we can put difference
Twixt man and man: and so doe reverence.
By sense twixt man and beast discerne we can,
Betweene a father and an other man.
By sense we may perceiue they are but stocks,
Which fools adore, who are themselues but blocks.
By sense men are let see how for to keep
Their fingers from their neighbours oxe, & sheep.
And finallie, by sense men learne much good,
And avoide the shedding of guiltlesse blood.
Now tell me, Why should sense be trusted here,
[Page 18] And yet so vtterly denyed there?
For tho to sense it does appeare,
That bread and wine are truely there,
Yet ye say Nay, and nothing feare.
We are not certayn that Christs Disciples did
Receiue the Eucharist, whiles he lay hid
In's sepulcher, starke-dead: but yet they might
Haue boldly took it then, and done but right.
And say they had: if that, ye hold, were good,
Then had they eate and drunke him flesh and
blood,
Hot, and aliue, when as in trueth he lay,
Not quick but dead, as doe the Scriptures say.
Or, will ye say the Sacrament did lack
Its vertue, as being for a time kept back,
Or quite extinct, vntill he rose againe?
Or that his body, as voyd of life, as paine,
Was really, and substantially,
Presented in that sacred Mystery?
Eyther of which ye shall as soone make cleere,
As make the Sunne at midnight to shine here.
Whereas to fayth Christ absent present is,
And dead, might liue to fayth, w'are sure of
this.
Whilst here he was, he present was to sence:
But absent from it now he is gone hence.
His blessed body present was, from dayes
Of old, to true belieuers fayth alwayes.
He ever with them was by the power of fayth,
By which he dwelleth in them,
Ephes. 3. 17.
th' Apostle sayth.Not come in flesh, yet was he come to fayth,
Slayne from the beginning,
Rev. 13. 8.
as Scripture sayth.[Page 19] And hence it is, that they of old by Paul
Are sayed the verie same spirituall
1. Cor. 10. [...] ▪
Both meat to eat, and drink to drink, which we
Our selues receiue by fayth, not carnallie.
For meat and drink, which are spirituall,
Are not to be eaten and drunck as carnall.
This food, they fed on,
Gen 3. 15. and [...]2▪ 18.
is that Promiss'd Seed,Which they receiu'd by fayth, and so did feed.
And still by fayth,
Gal. 3. 19.
if true, is to be ta'en,And not with hand, or mouth, as ye would faine.
For fayth can see things a farre off with ease,
And on them, as vpon things present, seize.
Faith for the soule is as much, as the eye,
Hand, mouth, throat, and mawe are for the
body.
But some of you stick not to say, The Lord
Deceiu'd you,
As one [...] Pauls crosse i [...] Queen Maries da [...]es▪ D. Lessius de sum. bono l. 4 c 2 pag 568 lin. 23.
if deceiu'd ye be, with's word.Forsooth, because he sayes, This is my body.
A bold conceipt it is: both blinde, and frothy.
For, if it please you to weigh this Scripture
With other Scriptures, or in peace endure
To see it for you done in loue by others,
(Who are, if ye be Christes, in truth your Brothers)
Ye may cleerely see, if ye will permit
Your will to be directed by your wit,
That these same words do beare an other sense,
Then that, ye go about to fetch from thence,
View well the places, ye see quoted here,
And ye may plainly see what IS meanes there.1
[Page 20] To putte IS for SIGNIFIES is not rare,
As he soone may see, that to see does care.
Neyther is this exposition new,
But old: no youth, as that, that's brought by you.
For herein your Mothers wit,
Neither sense, nor holy Writ,
Nor antiquitie does fit.
As for that Offering of Christ, ye hold,
I wonder much wherefore ye are so bold.
Search the Scriptures: ye can not finde it there.
Or look to reason, and y'are ne'er the neare,
His owne One's ynough,
Heb. 10, 10. & 7, 27, & 9, 28.
all-able and good.Nor is sin pardon'd without shedding blood.
And therefore yours,
Hebr. 9, 22.
without such effusion,Is nought els at all but mere delusion.
Yours eyther is the same with his, or not:
If it be not the same, then haue ye got
An other Gospell besides that he tought.
But if it be the same with that he wrought,
Then doe ye offer him in blood, and slayen,
Which ye can not,
Rom. 6, 9.
would ye never so faine.Christ is no more on earth, but is aboue.
He sayes as much:
Iohn 12, 8. & 17, 11.
and that doth you reproue▪I say again, that must haue consecration,
Which vnto God is made a right oblation.
And who dare say, that's not a divels limme,
That Iesus Christ is consecrate by him.
By one offring hath he consecrated
For ever them,
Heb. 10, 14
that are sanctified.He consecrates vs, and his act is stable.
[Page 21] To consecrate him we are all vnable.
See then the straits, whereinto ye are brought,
Whiles yee forsake the wayes inth' Scriptures tought.
To the Scriptures then giue eare:
And, what God speaks in them, heare;
Holding fast the truth in feare.
Now do I speak to all you men of fire,
Who hotter are, then reason does require:
There's one thing, I would gladly haue you show,
Wherefore your choler should so strangely flow,
That nothing will suffice you, but the blood
Of such, as think your doctrine is not good,
But new, and naught, concerning your Oblation▪
Of Christ, and of your Transsubstantiation?
And yet both yee and wee agree in this,
That Iesus Christ, our life, in heauen now is.
We both belieue he died vpon the Tree,
And offer'd up himselfe most willinglie.
We both acknowledge his owne one oblation,
Made on the Crosse, is our propitiation▪
We neither of vs doubt, but hold he is
A true and perfit man, God, Lord of blisse.
More, Both of vs affirme, and not deceived,
That hee's giuen ith' Eucharist, and receiued;
Giuen of God, and receiu'd of the godly,
Which come fitted for that sacred Myst'ry.
And yet, forsooth, this will not serue our turne,
But that as Heretiques we needs must burne.
And why as Heretiques? Because we say,
There's no such offring of him day by day.
(Yet confesse we that a Representation
[Page 22] Is in the Sacrament, of his oblation,
Who Once offer up himselfe for sin,
Hebr. 9. 28. and 10. 12.
But since that Once hath never offer'd bin;
Not properly, but in a type, or, figure,
Whereof we certain are: of yours not sure.)
And for because we say, as sense does teach,
And as both Scriptures and old Doctors preach,
That bread and wine doe truly there remaine,
And not in shew onely, as ye do faigne,
Teaching men to belieue vnder a curse,
That their substance is gone: and which is worse,
Turn'd into the flesh and blood of our Lord:
Which ye presse vpon men with word and sword.
Now for because we do not hold this turning,
Ye hold vs, as heretiques, worthy burning.
Well, what's past, let that suffice.
Wake, and learne for to be wise.
Hate not men for hating lies.
The great and mightie God, that hath made all,
Christians and others, both great and small,
Allowes you not to take away mans life
Through bitter zeale and vnadvised strife:
Allowes you not his creatures blood to spill,
For crossing of your priuate thoughts and will.
Foule shame it is that mens owne fonde opinions,
In Christendome should cause so great divisions.
A shame it is, such Boasters of Antiquitie
Should be so faultie in devising Novitie.
O that all humane vnderstanding might
Once become subject to the Scriptures light:
That all would truly yeeld, and nothing grudge,
[Page 23] To make them their Sole Rule of fayth, and Iudge,
O that charitie, so much talk'd off, might
Once among Christians obteyne her right.
O that God, whose Great Name we all confesse,
Were better serued, and offended lesse.
If filthie Lucre, Pride, and base Ambition,
Which are the Workers of so great confusion,
Were once abandon'd, and that men would go
Roundly to work, the naked trueth to know,
Preferring it to all things els beside,
Then should our Lord be better glorified.
Then factions soone would cease:
They, that vex, would seek to please,
And Christs kingdome would increase.
Then they, that now the holy Church do rend,
Would all their wits and labors for it spend,
Then factious Nick-names soone would all be left,
Neyther should men of peace be so bereft
The trueth, that now is banish'd,
True loue, which now is vanish'd,
Would both be better cherish'd.
Now to the plaine, and wel-minded Romane,
Who is misled, I am returnd' againe.
The truth, ye should be taught, I will not tell,
That which your learned Priestes do knowe full well.
The Cuppe is yours all as well as the Bread,
As in the sacred Scriptures ye may read.
Mat. 26. 27▪
The Substance of the bread and wine remaine
Mar. 14. 23.
After their Consecration,
1 Cor. 11. 28▪ 29.
that's plaine.They are Afterwards, what they were Afore:
Euen as the Priest, now order'd will confesse,
Hee's what he was, yet more by this accesse.
As for theyr Essence, They are the Same, they Were:
But for Vse, an other
I mean service, office, or condition.
nature they beare.Tho then their proper nature does endure,
Yet in their service they are chang'd it's sure.
For, once hallow'd, they are a Sacrament
Of Christs body and blood, vpon vs spent.
Bare Signes they are not: they are also Seales,
And exhibit the grace, the word reveales.
The signes thou tak'st at the hand of a man:
But God giues thee his Son; for no man can.
And, when thou comm'st vnto this Sacrament,
Belieuing, humbled, and true penitent;
Thou art hereby put into sure possession
Of Iesus Christ, and of his blessed passion.
As truly as thou tak'st the bread and wine,
So truely are Christs flesh and blood made thine.
His benefits alone thou doest not take:
But Christ withall, who dyed for thy sake.
The fruits are thine: the tree is also thine,
Euen as the substance of the bread and wine.
Yea fast thou art united to thy Lord,
Who does himselfe, and his to thee afford.
To say That Men Prepair'd Doe Eat His Flesh,
And drinck his blood, their soules for to refresh,
Euen his very flesh, and his very blood,
May well be sayde, if't be well vnderstood.
And sauing fayth, by which we do belieue,
Is that, by which we eat him, and receiue.
[Page 25] Or say, how this is done, we doe not know:
Yet the faithfull doe it, although no moe.
But, if thou doest not thither come prepared,
Then, though thou tak'st this holy Cuppe and Bread,
Yet doest thou not the Bread of life receiue:
But doest in truth thy foolish heart deceiue.
For, who so comm's without due preparation,
He eats and drinks vnto his own damnation;
It being certeinly no small offence
To rush on these things without reverence.
And yet too many doe, as may appeare
By their ill liues, after they haue been there;
Following the courses, they ran before,
Whereby they anger God so much the more.
Too many also themselues doe occupy,
Not in themselues, but in this Mysterie,
Searching and sifting it with carnall wit:
Whereas to trye themselues were farre more fit:
But chiefly now, sith God has drawen his sword,
And does not to us speak alone by word.
The grievous judgments, which make many cry,
Should moue us all our selues in time to trie.
But yet more, know that holy Writ doeth teach,
(That which the holy men of old did preach)
That the signes themselues are dignified
With the names of the things signified.
And this is for their honor done, and more;
Euen for to raise our hearts, from things before
Our eyes, vnto the things, that are aboue,
Which here are tendred to us of free loue.
This is trueth: it is no lie.
[Page 26] This is true Antiquitie.
The other's new, and silly.
Glorie be to God on high, and to men truth, And loue, and peace, through Iesus Christ, by the mightie working of the Holie Spirit, Amen, and Amen. March vii. 1624.
Tho. Tuke.