More.
Tyndale here putteth many questyons to me, whyche he wyll that I muste nedys answere bycause the oyle in the ma¦kynge of a preste is not of necessyte / but surely these questy∣ons be to ye mater of mych lesse necessyte. How be it bycause I must nedys answere to men of suche authoryte, when the questyons be so solempnely put: I saye that yf a bysshoppe [ B] sacre the tone oyle and the tother bothe alyke, there is no more vertue in the tone then is in the tother. But I say that the oyle beynge all one / it is in the anoyntynge of the preste an holy ceremony / and in the anoyntynge of the chylde at confyrmacyon it is the mater of an holy sacrament / and in y• anelyng of ye sycke also, and euery of these two is one of the seuen, whyche the spyryte of god hath taught the chyrche of Cryste to knowe and vse for .vii. souerayne meanys of very specyall grace.
And therfore such dyfference is there, as is bytwene the halowed water standynge in the font before it be occupyed, or yf it were sprynkled vppon a man for holy water / and the same holowed water beynge occupyed in the crystenynge of a chylde at the tyme in whyche it is applyed thereto. For in [ C] that tyme besyde the goodnes that it hath of the halowyng / it hath a nother effectuall goodnes by goddys ordynaunce, whereby it is made a meane of purgyng the soule fro synne and•• infusyon of goddys grace, and of enablynge the newe regendred creature to inherytaunce of heuyn.
And when Tyndale asketh me in any of these thynges ye cause & ye reason why: I myght as well aske hym ye cause and reason why, in the nature and properte of any naturall thynge, beste, herbe, tre, or stone. whych yf I were so madde to loke that Tyndale were able to tell me: what had he more to saye, then that god had planted that nature and properte therin•• whych answere shall also serue in these holy ceremo∣nyes and ••a••ramētes / wherof the vertues be caused by god¦des ordyna••••ce thorow his holy wordes, whereof the pro∣fyte is lymyt•••• and po••••••n••d after such rate and degrees••