A Golden Chain

because they are joined together by means of the head. III. It holdeth that the guilt and fault of sin may be remitted by Christ: and yet the temporal punishment of sin be unremitted: but these are quite contrary. Paul saith,¹ there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Yet if a man were punished for his sin after he were in Christ, and had the fault of sin remitted, some condemnation should now remain him. And David saith, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin:² therefore he to whom the Lord imputeth no sin, hath not only the guilt of sin, but also the punishment of his sin remitted: otherwise he could not be blessed but miserable. and this agreeth not with gods justice, when the fault is quite pardoned, and a man is guilty of no sin, that then any punishment should ⟨p. 654⟩be laid on. And S. Austin saith,³ that Christ by taking upon him the punishment of sin, and not taking upon him the fault, took away both the punishment and the fault. Wherefore this opinion, that Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin, overthroweth all Satisfactions & Purgatory, because the fault & guilt being taken away, all punishment for sin is also taken away. IV. Transubstantiation is a monster, standing on manifold contradictions. First, it maketh Christs body to be in many places: an evident contradiction. For it is of the nature and essence of a body to be in one place only: which I prove thus. A body is a magnitude, a magnitude is a continued quantity, a continued quantity cannot be but in one place: therefore a body cannot be but in one place. In his argument the doubt is only of the last part: which undoubtedly is most true. For it is called a continued quantity, because his parts are continued and knit together the one with another in a common term or bond, as a line by a point, a plane and his parts by a line, a solid by a Superficies or plane. Now these points can in no wise be continued, unless every one of them keep one only special place. For examples sake: suppose the plane, a, b, c, d, to be divided into three [figure] parts, I, k, l, by two lines, e, g, and f, h, which do both divide the three parts & continue them the one with the other. Now I say, that every one of the parts may be continued with his next fellow, it is necessary that every one of them should have one special and distinct place.