Two very learned sermons of M. Beza, together with a short sum of the…Two very lerned sermons of M. Beza, togither with a short sum of the…

Indeed if the sign of the sacrament, and the thing signified by the same, were things contrary, they might have some show of reason, for this unmeasurable affection, but forasmuch as we all know them to be, not things contrary, but divers, no doubt, but they not only may, but do very well stand together, the one of them being so far, from destroying or defacing of an other, that they in a most loving consent agree and concur together to the setting forth of Gods glory, and the spiritual good and comfort of his children. Wherefore, I say, it cannot be avoided, but that they do very ill, that do thus malapertly disjoin and put in sunder such things, as God hath most wisely joined and glued as it were fast together.

Indeede if the signe of the sacrament, and the thing signified by the same, were thinges contrary, they might haue some shew of reason, for this vnmeasurable affection, but forasmuch as wee all knowe them to be, not things contrary, but diuers, no doubt, but they not onely may, but do very well stand together, the one of them beeing so farre, from destroying or defacing of an other, that they in a most louing consent agree and concurre together to the setting foorth of Gods glorie, and the spirituall good and comforte of hys children. Wherefore, I saye, it cannot be auoided, but that they doe very ill, that do thus malapertlie disioyne and put in sunder such things, as God hath most wiselie ioyned and glewed as it were fast together.

2 Secondly, I affirm, that this doctrine is wonderfully injurious unto the glorified body of our Saviour, not only whilst it fetcheth him from heaven the place of all such blessedness, as can not be conceived, much less spoken of, into the earth, the place of all unspeakable misery and wretchedness, which yet is not ⟨p. 178⟩all, this circumstance further aggravating the error of this unjust assertion, that they make the blessed body of Christ, our Lord and god, subject to the call of a mortal and miserable creature (the priest I mean, as they name him) as though if he bade go, it should go, or if he commanded it to come, it should come, &c: But also whilst it maketh it, to be rent and torn in pieces, not only with the teeth of good men, a matter which our nature abhorreth, both in respect of the rawness of it, & also in respect of the substance of it, for we are not Anthropophagi, that is, eaters of mans flesh, but even with the teeth of the wicked and ungodly also, which even for this cause, if there were no more, is most untrue and false, because that then they should live for ever,