as an infant in his swathing-clouts; and yet then Christ was neither infant, Presence. nor swathed in clouts, nor in corporal presence indeed and verily present there. Therefore St Augustine saith: Absentia Domini non est absens. Habe fidem, et tecum est, quem non vides 10: "The absence of our Lord is not absent. Have faith; and he whom thou seest not is present with thee." Likewise St Ambrose saith : "St Stephen, standing in the earth, toucheth the Lord being in heaven"." Ambros. Thus saith St Cyprian: "Christ's body is present at the holy communion, not De Magd. by any corporal or real presence, but by the effectual working and force of faith." In like sort Eusebius Emissenus saith: Ut perennis illa victima viveret in memoria, De Conseer. et semper præsens esset in gratia12: "That that everlasting sacrifice might live corpus. in our remembrance, and evermore be present in grace.' He saith not, that Dist. ii. Quia Rer. Eccles. the sacrifice of Christ's body should be present locally, really, verily, or indeed, but in remembrance and in grace. Germanus hereof writeth thus: Non amplius German. in super terram sumus; sed in throno Dei regi assistimus in cœlis, ubi Christus Theor. est 13: "We are no longer upon the earth; but we are assistant unto the king in the throne of God in heaven, where Christ is." For that Lamb's sake, whom we thus see and thus have present, whatsoever we pray, our tears beg not in vain. For he is our Advocate and Mediator, and evermore maketh 1 John ii. intercession for us. Whatsoever we desire the Father in his name, shall be Heb. vii. done unto us. Rom. viii. John xvi. Thus "the angels and archangels," as Chrysostom by way of amplification saith, Chrysost. de Incomp. Dei "lifting up, and shewing forth, and presenting unto God in heaven that body Nat. Hom. 3. of Christ, make their prayers for mankind, and thus they say: For them we pray, O Lord, whom thou lovedst so tenderly, that for their salvation it pleased thee to suffer death, and to yield thy soul upon the cross: for them we pray, for whom thou hast given thy blood, and offered up this body 14." This certainly is the meaning of Chrysostom's words. And therefore he saith again: "Whether we pray for the church, or for the ministers, or for the increase of the earth, our pravers are acceptable unto God only in Christ and for his sake 15." Hom. 15. ad Touching that he writeth further of the presence and assistance of angels and heavenly powers, it is the ordinary manner and course of Chrysostom's eloquence, and serveth him both to beautify the matter, and also to stir up and inflame the hearers' minds; and that not only in the time of the holy mysteries, but also at all other holy assemblies and public prayers. For thus he saith unto the people: Angeli sunt ubique, et maxime in domo Dei adsunt regi, et Chrysost. omnia plena sunt incorporeis illis virtutibus 16: "The angels of God are every Heb. where, but specially in the house of God. They are assistant unto the king; and all places are full of spiritual powers." In like manner of amplification he saith: "The martyrs are here present in the church. If thou wilt see Chrysost. in them, open the eyes of thy faith, and thou shalt see a great company 17" Ascens. So saith St Basil: "The angels of God are present amongst us, and mark Basil. de Jeand register them that keep their fast 18" So saith Tertullian : "Let no man Tertull. de Baptism. [10 August. Op. Serm. ccxxxv. In Dieb. Pasch. vi. 3. Tom. V. col. 990; where non est absentia, and habeto.] [11 Stephanus in terris positus Christum tangit in cœlo.-Maxim. Taur. Hom. ad calc. Leon. Magni Op. Lut. 1623. De Sep. Dom. et de Mar. Magdal. Hom. iv. col. 612. See before, page 499, note 10.] [12 Euseb. Emiss. in Corp. Jur. Can. 1624. Decret, Gratian. Decr. Tert. Pars, De Consecr. Dist. ii. can. 35. col. 1927; where et perennis victima illa.] [13 German. Constant. Rer. Eccles. Contempl. in Biblioth. Vet. Patr. Stud. Galland. Venet. 1765-81. Tom. XIII. p. 225.] [14 ... οὕτω δὴ καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι τότε ἀντὶ κλάδων ἐλαιῶν αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα τὸ δεσποτικὸν προτεινόμενοι, τὸν Δεσπότην παρακαλοῦσιν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, μονονουχί λέγοντες, ὅτι ὑπὲρ τούτων δεόμεθα, οὓς αὐτὸς φθάσας οὕτως ἀγαπῆσαι κατηξί ωσας, ὡς τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπιδοῦναι τὴν σεαυτοῦ· ὑπὲρ [15 The passage referred to is that quoted in [16 Id. in Epist. ad Hebr. cap. ix. Hom. xv. Tom. [17 Καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἄγγελοι πάρεισιν, ἀγγέλων καὶ [18 Αγγελοί εἰσιν οἱ καθ ̓ ἑκάστην ἐκκλησίαν Hom. de jun. Hom. 2. be hard to believe that the holy angel of God is present, and tempereth the water to the salvation of man1." This is it that Chrysostom meaneth by his vehement exornation of the presence of angels. And whereas M. Harding saith he hath passed over an2 hundred authorities and more that might be alleged to like purpose, this is one of his accustomed colours, and an artificial shift of his rhetoric. Verily, hitherto he hath not found one authority to prove that thing that is in question. M. HARDING. THE SECOND DIVISION. St Ambrose, in his funeral oration of the death of Valentinian the emperor, calling the sacrament of the altar the holy and heavenly mysteries and the oblation of our mother (by which term he understandeth the church), saith that he will prosecute the holy soul of that emperor with the same3. This father, writing upon the 38th Psalm, exhorteth priests to follow Christ, that, as he offered for us his blood, so priests offer sacrifice for the people. His words be these: Vidimus Principem sacerdotum, &c.: "We have seen the Prince of priests coming unto us: we have seen and heard him offering for us his blood. Let us that be priests follow as we can, so as we offer sacrifice for the people, though weak in merit, yet honourable for the sacrifice," &c. Obit. Valent. THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. This objection is easily answered. St Ambrose saith that in the congregation, and in the time of the holy mysteries, he would offer up unto God praises and thanksgiving for that godly emperor Valentinian. But he saith not that he would offer Christ the Son of God unto God his Father, or receive the sacrament for the emperor. Therefore M. Harding might well have passed this authority over among the rest. Neither did St Ambrose think that the emperor Valentinian was in purgatory, whereas M. Harding imagineth he might be relieved; but contrariwise he presumeth him undoubtedly to be in heaven. For thus he writeth of him: Ambros. de Quænam est hæc anima, &c.7: "What is this soul that looketh forth as the Imper. day-star, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun? O blessed soul, thou lookest down from above upon us, being here beneath: thou hast escaped the darkness of this world: thou art as bright as the moon: thou shinest as the sun." Further he saith: Cum fratre conjunctus æternæ vitæ fruitur voluptate. Beati ambo: "Being now with his brother, he enjoyeth the pleasure of everlasting life. Blessed are they both." Therefore the sacrifice that St Ambrose made was not a propitiatory, or satisfactory, or other like mass, whereby M. Harding thinketh himself able to bail souls out of purgatory; but only a sacrifice of thanksgiving for that godly emperor, being now in heaven. The other place of St Ambrose, as it nothing toucheth this question, so it is already answered fully and at large, Artic. VI, Divis. 7, and Artic. XVII, Divis. 12. [ Ne quis durius credat angelum Dei sanctum [ Made of the death, H. A. 1564.] [5 Date manibus sancta mysteria, pio requiem meritis rependamus.-Ambros. Op. Par. 1686-90. De Obit. Valent. Consol. 56. Tom. II. col. 1189.] [6. Id. in Psalm. xxxviii. Enarr. 25. Tom. I. col. 853. See before, page 490, note 5, and page 729, note 12.] [ Quænam est hæc prospiciens sicut diluculum, speciosa ut luna, electa ut sol?...Prospicis nos igitur, sancta anima, de loco superiore, tamquam inferiora respiciens. Existi de tenebris istius seculi, et ut luna resplendes, ut sol refulges. Id. De Obit.. Valent. Consol. 64. Tom. II. cols. 1190, 1.] [a Id. ibid. 77, 8. col. 1194.] M. HARDING. THE THIRD DIVISION. That the oblation of the mass is profitably made for others, St Gregory witnesseth very plainly, homilia 37, expounding the place of St Luke, cap. xiv.: Alioqui...legationem mittens, ea quæ pacis sunt postulat: "Else he sendeth forth an ambassade, and sueth for peace." Hereupon he saith thus: Mittamus ad Dominum... legationem nostram, flendo9...sacras hostias offerendo. Singulariter namque ad absolutionem nostram, oblata cum lacrymis et benignitate mentis, sacri 10 altaris hostia suffragatur: "Let us send to our Lord our ambassade, with weeping, giving alms 12, and offering of holy hosts. For the host of the holy altar (that is, the blessed sacrament) offered with tears, and with the merciful bounty of our mind, helpeth us singularly to be assoiled." In that homily he sheweth that the oblation of Christ's body in this sacrament present, which is done in the mass, is help and comfort not only to them that be present, but also to them that be absent, both quick and dead, which he proveth by example 13 of his own knowledge. Whoso listeth to see antiquity for proof hereof, and that in the apostles' time bishops and priests in the dreadful sacrifice offered and prayed for others, as for every state and order of men, and also for wholesomeness of the air, and for fertility of the fruits of the earth, &c., let him read the eighth book of the Constitutions of the Apostles set forth by Clement 14. THE BISHOP OF SARISBURY. Prayer for the dead is none of those articles that M. Harding hath taken in hand to prove. And therefore, as his manner is, he sheweth us one thing for another. This kind of prayer, although it be mere superstitious, and utterly without warrant of God's word, yet I confess it was many wheres received and used, both in Gregory's time and also long before, and is avouched of Gregory by a number of vain and childish fables. Touching the sacrifice of the holy communion he saith: "In this mystery Christ suffereth again for our sake: in this De Consecr. mystery Christ dieth: we offer up the sacrifice of his, passion: we renew again Quid sit, his passion unto ourselves 15." As Christ suffereth and dieth, and as his passion hoc mysterio and death is renewed in the holy communion; even so is he offered and sacrificed Gregor, in in the same, that is to say, as Gregory expoundeth himself, by representation 37 Evang. Hom. and by memory, and not verily, really, or indeed. Touching the matter itself that standeth in question, Gregory saith not, neither here nor elsewhere, either that the priest receiveth the communion for the rest of his parish, or that one man's receiving is available for another. Dist. 2. Iterum in moritur. The sacrifice that he nameth is no more the sacrifice of the priest than the sacrifice of any other of all the people. For thus he writeth in the same fable: Toties mariti vincula solvebantur in captivitate, quoties ab ejus conjuge oblatæ fuis- Gregor. in sent hostiæ pro ejus animæ absolutione 16: "The husband being taken prisoner Hom 37. had his gyves loosed from him as often as his wife offered up sacrifice for his soul." The words of this supposed Clement, by whom M. Harding would seem to claim a shew of great antiquity, nothing touch the thing that is demanded. For thus only he saith: Offerimus tibi, Regi et Deo, &c. 17: "We offer up unto thee, our Evang. [ Flendo, tribuendo, sacras, H. A. 1564. But H. A. 1565 omits tribuendo.] [10 Sacris, 1609, 1611.] [" Gregor. Magni Papæ I. Op. Par. 1705. In Evang. Lib. II. Hom. xxxvii. 6, 7. Tom. I. cols. 1630, 1; where alioquin, rogat ea quæ pacis sunt, and mittamus ad hunc.] [1o Almose, 1565, and H. A. 1564.] [14 Constit. Apost. Lib. VIII. capp. xii. xv. in Concil. Stud. Labb. et Cossart. Lut. Par. 1671-2. Tom. I. cols. 482, 6.] non moritur, adhuc per hanc in suo mysterio pro [16 Id. ibid. 8. ibid.; where cujus toties vincula, [17 ...προσφέρομέν σοι τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ Θεῷ κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ διάταξιν τὸν ἄρτον τοῦτον καὶ τὸ που τήριον τοῦτο εὐχαριστοῦντές σοι δι' αὐτοῦ. Const. Clem. A post. viii. God and King, according to Christ's institution, this bread and this cup, by him rendering thanks unto thee." And, lest M. Harding happen to say this sacrifice was propitiatory to relieve the souls that were in purgatory, this Clemens saith further Offerimus tibi pro omnibus, qui a seculis tibi placuerunt, sanctis, patriarchis, prophetis, justis, apostolis, martyribus1: "We offer unto thee for all holy saints that have been from the beginning of the world, patriarchs, prophets, just men, apostles, and martyrs." I trow, M. Harding will not say all these were in purgatory. And touching the receiving of the communion he saith thus: Postea recipiat episcopus, &c.2: "Then let the bishop receive, and after him the priests, the deacons, the subdeacons, the readers, the singers, the religious, the women deacons, the virgins, the widows, the children, and the whole congregation in order, with sobriety and reverence without confusion." By this record of this Clemens it appeareth that the whole congregation received the holy communion all together, each man for himself, and not one man for another. Now, whereas M. Harding utterly denieth that ever any man in his church received the sacrament instead of others, as somewhat misliking the open folly of the same, for short trial hereof I remit him both to the very practice of his mass, and also to the most catholic doctors of all his school. In his requiem he singeth thus: Pro quorum memoria corpus Christi sumitur, &c.3: "For whose remembrance the body of Christ is received." If he can happily devise some veil to shadow this, yet his doctors be both so plain that they cannot be shifted, and also of so good credit that they may not be refused. Certainly they have been evermore thought to teach the catholic doctrine of the Biel. Lect. 81. church. Gabriel Biel saith thus: Sicut os materialis corporis, &c.1: “As the mouth of our material body not only eateth for itself, but also receiveth sustenance for the preservation of all other members, which sustenance is divided throughout the whole body; even so the priest receiveth the sacrament, and the virtue thereof passeth into all the members of the church, and specially into them that are present at the mass.' Likewise saith Vincentius de Valentia: "The whole Christianity is one body knit together by faith and charity and having in it sundry members; and the priest is the mouth of this body. Therefore when the priest receiveth the sacrament, all the members are refreshed"." Again he saith: [Nos] communicamus ore sacerdotis, audiendo missam: "We hearing mass do communicate or receive the sacrament by the mouth of the priest.” Likewise Doctor Eckius saith: Populus bibit spiritualiter per os sacerdotis”: “The people drinketh spiritually by the mouth of the priest." These words be plain, and truly reported. Which being true, it must needs appear that M. Harding's avouching the contrary is untrue. In Serm. 2. de Epiph. Eck, de Utraq. Spec. Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Hom. 40. So Chrysostom saith, the old heretics called Marcionitæ used to baptize some that were living in the behalf and stead of others that were dead3. And from thence it seemeth they that now would be counted catholics have derived their doctrine in this point. And that M. Harding may the rather believe that such folly hath been used, let him remember that in his church the bishop, when he createth a reader, giveth him evermore this commission: Accipe potestatem Apost. Lib. VIII. cap xii. in Concil. Stud. Labb. [ ... καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο μεταλαμβανέτω ὁ ἐπία [3 Manual. ad Us. Eccles. Sarisb. Rothom. 1555. Miss. pro Defunct. fol. 141. 2.] [ Sicut os materialis corporis comedit, non solum pro se, sed pro salute omnium membrorum sumit cibum; qui per totum corpus diffunditur et membris singulis incorporatur, ut salvetur in sua subsistentia naturali: sic sacerdos sumit sacramentum, cujus virtus transit in omnia ecclesiæ membra hujus cibi spiritualiter susceptiva, et singulariter in eos qui missæ intersunt officio. - Gab. Biel. Can. Miss. Expos. Basil. 1515. Lect. lxxxi. fol. 238.] [5 Tota christianitas est unum corpus fide et caritate conjunctum, habens multa membra. Sacerdos est os hujus corporis. Cum ergo sacerdos communicat, omnia membra reficiuntur.-Vincent. Serm. Hyemal. Antv. 1572. In Epiph. Dom. Serm. ii. p. 203.] [ Id. ibid.; where sacerdotum.] [ Joh. Eck. Enchir. Loc. Com. Col. 1532. cap. x. fol. E. 5. 2. See before, page 213, note 7.] [8 Chrysost. Op. Par. 1718-38. Cor. Hom. xl. Tom. X. p. 378.] In Epist. 1. ad legendi evangelium...tam pro vivis, quam pro defunctis: "Receive thou power to read the gospel, as well for the quick as for the dead." Therefore M. Harding, so earnestly denying this, denieth the manifest and known truth, and defaceth the credit of his own doctors. To conclude, I may well say as before, that M. Harding, having nothing to allege touching the matter that lieth between us, and instead thereof filling up his papers with matters impertinent, of prayer and sacrifice, hath somewhat abused the patience of his reader, and shewed him one thing for another. [ Pontifical. Rom. Antv. 1627. De Ord. Diac. p. 39; where accipite.] [JEWEL, II.] 13 |