Chapter 19:
Baptism and the Eucharist
Again, we will bring a reason taken from baptism. A little before, we argued from thence that for the truth of that sacrament it was not requisite that water should be transubstantiated: now we reason from the men themselves which be baptized, of whom the Scripture plainly saith that they lay away the old man, and are again begotten: and yet is there no transubstantiation imagined in them; nevertheless, generation is described to be a motion whereby a new substance is gotten. Wherefore it is no marvel that Nicodemus took offence at the words of the Lord, wherein it was showed him that he should be born again. For while he thought with himself that a new generation was preached unto man already brought forth and well in years, he stood in doubt. But if we interpret that generation to be new, and the nativity to be spiritual, why do we not vouchsafe to do the same in the Eucharist? And why do we not transfer all things unto spiritual eating?
I gladly join together these two sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, because Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the twelfth chapter, knitteth them together, when he saith: “All we by one spirit are baptized into one body, and have been all made to drink with one spirit.” Neither is it of any force, if thou shalt say, that we be baptized into one body, to wit, the mystical body, because from the mystical body Christ is not absent, seeing He is the head thereof. And elsewhere Paul most plainly saith that we in baptism put on Christ.
Chapter 20:
Spiritual Eating and the Sixth Chapter of John
We see moreover, that the holy writers bring out of the sixth chapter of John many things as touching the sacrament of the Eucharist. Yea rather, there is none of the fathers which in the interpreting of that chapter, writeth not plentifully of the Eucharist. Whereupon we conclude a reason after this manner: The things which be there spoken, either serve unto this sacrament or they serve not: if they belong not unto this, what need is there to write them, or by those places to dispute of the Eucharist? But if they have respect unto this, seeing there is only a spiritual eating, that is by faith, whereby is received the true body and blood of Christ, what need is there to bring in another new receiving, and to imagine a carnal eating, whereby the same thing should be received again?
For if we grant that there cometh some godly and faithful man, then these men shall be constrained to admit, that twice he doth receive the body of Christ: first by a spiritual eating through faith, afterward by their carnal eating which they have never proved. And thus thou seest that these men do stop up their own way, so as they cannot truly cite those testimonies which are upon the sixth chapter of John. And while they affirm transubstantiation, they are found to be in the same error that the Capernaites were. Even they also revolved in their mind I know not what corporal eating of the flesh of Christ, from which cogitation, Christ straightway revoked them, when He said: that His words were spirit and life: and that the flesh profiteth nothing. And He objected unto them the memory of His ascension into heaven, saying: “What if ye see the Son of Man ascend into heaven where He was at the first?” But these men say that they are not of the same mind that the Capernaites were: for say they: they thought that the flesh of Christ should be cut into pieces, and should be torn with the teeth, and therefore they utterly misliked thereof: but as touching the special imagination of the Capernaites, whatsoever it was they know not, but very like it is, that they thought carnally, therefore they were troubled with the mention made of ascending into heaven.
Christ’s Presence and Transubstantiation
Hereunto it serveth, that Christ said unto His Apostles about the end of His life, that He would leave the world and would depart from them: which should not be true, if He were with us by transubstantiation as these men would. They have used to answer that Christ left the world as touching mortal conditions, and as touching familiarity and bodily conversation. These indeed are subtle shifts, but they serve not to the purpose. For when Christ spake these words, Philip answered: “Behold now thou speakest plainly, and without parables.” Howbeit if it were so to be understood, the speech had been obscure and like a parable.
Further, if Christ remain with us so corporally in the Eucharist, He might by the same reason remain both in our hearts, and also in ourselves. Therefore He might still after His ascension rule the Church by His own self, and be present with His Apostles. But He saith that He would leave a vicar in His stead: namely the Holy Ghost, who had not been necessary, if whole Christ as touching divinity and humanity (as these men will) were present. For seeing the flesh and body of Him is by participation in each one of us (according to their doctrine) and that His godhead is present, He might deal by His own self without the Holy Ghost to be the prompter.
Mary the mother of the Lord, the most blessed virgin, when she had heard of the Angel, that the word of God should take flesh upon Him, and that she was chosen to conceive and bring forth the Son of God, she judged these to be strange and wonderful things, and demanded how these things should be, and so forth. But this translation of the bread into the body of Christ, seeing it is no less matter than is that mystery of His incarnation and nativity of the Virgin, it is a wonder that in the holy scriptures there is found neither admiration nor question demanded of that matter: and that in none of the writings of the Evangelists or Apostles, this belief of transubstantiation is commended unto us, being a thing of so great importance. Neither do we hearken unto some that say, in the sixth chapter of John there went a question before: because the answer that was there given of spiritual eating, they will now transfer unto this sacramental eating, which nevertheless they assign to be another than that was. For us therefore doth that question and answer serve, but it nothing at all profiteth these men, who feign another eating differing from that spiritual eating, to wit, this eating which we now have in hand.