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The preface of the fourth booke.
VUe haue shewed what proufes may be brought out of Christes promise at Capharnaum, for his reall and corpo∣ral presence in the Eucharist: it remaineth we nowe de∣clare the same truth, by that whiche he performed in his last sup∣per. And because the chefe controuersie is, whether the words of Christ do meane as they sound, or els must be taken otherwise: I wil first make it plaine, that they ought to be taken properly & as they sound to men of common vnderstanding, vntill an euident reason be brought why they must be meant vnproperly. & there∣withal I shew, that no reason is now to be heard for the vnpro∣per interpretation of them, because the tyme of all such allegatiōs is expired more then fiften hundred yeres past, for so much as the whole Church is in possession of the proper meaning.
Afterward I wil proue the proper & literall meaning of those words by the circumstances of the supper: by the conference of holy scriptures taken out of the old and newe testament, and last of all by the commandement whiche was geuen the Apostles to continue the Sacrament of Christes supper vntill he come to iudge the worlde. If in conferring the promise with the perfor∣mance, or by any other occasion I chance to say somwhat, whiche was before touched: I must aske pardon thereof, as who ende∣uore partly to make al things playne, partly to confirme the pre∣sent matter, whereof I speake by such conuenient allegations as for the tyme come to my remembrance. Once I am sure, it is not a thing affected of me to say the same thing oft: albeit either the affinitie of the argument, or the desyre to haue the thing wel remembred, or my forgetfulnes may cause me to fall in to that default.