A09453:281
A Reformed Catholic
A reformed Catholic: or, A declaration showing how near we may come to the present Church of Rome in sundry points of religion: and wherein we must for ever depart from them with an advertisement to all favourers of the Roman religion, showing that the said religion is against the Catholic principles and grounds of the catechism.A reformed Catholike: or, A declaration shewing how neere we may come to the present Church of Rome in sundrie points of religion: and vvherein we must for euer depart from them with an advertisment to all fauourers of the Romane religion, shewing that the said religion is against the Catholike principles and grounds of the catechisme.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1598Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1598
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Our consent.
I. We hold and believe a presence of Christs body and blood in the Sacrament of the Lords supper: and that no feigned, but a true and real presence: which must be considered two ways; first in respect of the signs, secondly in respect of the communicants. For the first, we hold and teach, that Christs body and blood, are truly present with the bread and wine, being signs in the sacrament: but how? not in respect of place, of coexistence: but by sacramental relation, on this manner. When a word is uttered, the sound comes to the ear; and at the same instant, the thing signified comes to the mind; and thus by relation the word and the thing spoken of, are both present together. Even so at the Lords table bread and wine must not be considered barely, as substances and creatures, but as outward signs in relation to the body and blood of Christ: ⟨p. 186⟩and this relation, arising from the very institution of the Sacrament, stands in this, that when the elements of bread & wine are present to the hand and to the mouth of the receiver; at the very same time the body and blood of Christ are presented to the mind: thus and no otherwise is Christ truly present with the signs. The second presence is in respect of the communicants, to whose believing hearts he is also really present. It will be said, what kind of presence is this? Ans. Such as the communion in the sacrament is, such is the presence: and by the communion must we judge of the presence. Now the communion is on this manner: God the father, according to the tenor of the Evangelical covenant, gives Christ in this sacrament as really and truly, as any thing can be given to man, not by part and piecemeal (as we say) but whole Christ God and man, on this sort. In Christ there be two natures, the godhead, and manhood. The godhead is not given in regard of substance, or essence: but only in regard of efficacy, merits, and operation conveyed thence ⟨p. 187⟩to the manhood. And further, in this sacrament Christs whole manhood is given both body and soul, in this order. First of all is given the very manhood in respect of substance, and that really: secondly the merits & benefits thereof, as namely, the satisfaction performed by and in the manhood, to the justice of God. And thus the entire manhood with the benefits thereof, are given wholly and jointly together.