Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 2, part 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.

¶The sixt argument.

Da- The circumstances of the scripture, the Analogie and proportion of the sacraments, and the testimony of the faithfull Fathers ought to rule vs in taking the mea∣ning of the holy scripture touching the sacrament.

ti- But the wordes of the Lords supper, y^e circumstances of the scripture, the Analogie of the sacramentes, & the saying of y^e fathers do most effectually & plainely proue a figuratiue speach in the words of the Lordes supper.

si. Ergo, a figuratiue sense and meaning is specially to be receaued in these wordes: This is my body.

The circumstances of the scripture:* 1.1 Do this in the remē∣braunce of me. As oft as ye shall eate of this bread and drynke of this cup, ye shall shewe foorth the Lordes death. Let a man proue himselfe, and so eate of this bread, and drinke of this cup. They came together to breake bread: and they continued in breaking of bread. The bread which we break &c. For we be∣ing many, are all one bread, and one body. &c.

The Analogie of the sacramentes is necessary:* 1.2 For if the sacramentes had not some similitude or likenes of the things wherof they be sacramentes, they could in no wise be sacraments. And this similitude in the sacrament of the Lords supper, is taken three maner of wayes.

1. The first consisteth in nourishing: as ye shall reade in Rabana, Cyprian, Augustine, Irenee,* 1.3 and most plainly in Isodore out of Bertram.

2. The second, in the vniting and ioyning of many into one, as Cyprian teacheth.

3. The third is a similitude of vnlike thinges, where, lyke as the bread is turned into one body: so wee, by the right vse of this sacrament, are turned through fayth into the body of Christ.

The sayinges of the Fathers declare it to be a figura∣tiue speache, as it appeareth in Origen, Tertullian,* 1.4 Chry∣sostome in opere imperfecto, Augustine, Ambrose, Basill, Gregory, Nazianzene, Hilary, and most plainely of all, in Bertram. Moreouer, the sayinges and places of all y^e Fa∣thers, whose names I haue before recited against the as∣sertion of the first propositiō, do quite ouerthrow transub∣stantiation. But of all other, most euidently and playnly, Irenee, Origen, Cyprian, Chrisostome to Cesarius the Monke, Augustine against Adamantus, Gelasius, Cyril, Epiphanius, Chrisostome agayne on the xx. of Mathew, Rabane, Damasene and Bertram.

Here right worshipfull maister Prolocutor, and ye the rest of the Commissioners, it may please you to vnderstād, that I do not leaue to these thinges onely,* 1.5 whiche I haue written in my former answeres and confirmations, but y^t I haue also for the proofe of y^t I haue spoken, whatsoeuer Bertram a man learned, of sound and vpright iudgement, and euer counted a Catholicke for these seuen hundreth yeares vntill this our age, hath written. His treatise who∣soeuer shall read and wey, considering the time of the wri∣ter, his learning, godlines of life, the allegations of y^e an∣cient fathers, and his manifolde and most grounded argu∣mentes, I cannot (doubtles) but much marueile, if he haue any feare of God at all,* 1.6 howe he can with good conscience speake against him in this matter of the Sacrament. This Bertram was the first that pulled me by the eare, and that first brought me from the common errour of the Romishe Church, and caused me to searche more diligently and ex∣actly, both the scriptures and the writinges of the olde ec∣clesiasticall Fathers in this matter. And this I protest be∣fore the face of God, who knoweth I lye not in the things I now speake.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The circumstan∣ces and wordes of scripture.
• * 1.2

  The Analogie of the sacra∣mentes.
• * 1.3

  Analogie or si∣militude in the sacrament, three maner of waies.
• * 1.4

  The sayinges of the fathers for the figuratiue speach.
• * 1.5

  Commendation of Bertram.
• * 1.6

  D. Ridley first brought to the knowledge of the sacrament by Bertram.