A preparative to marriage The sum whereof was spoken at a contract, and enlarged…A preparatiue to mariage The summe whereof was spoken at a contract, and inlarged…

What then, is there nothing in ¹the Sacrament but bread & wine, like a hungry nunscion? Nay we say not that the Sacrament is nothing but a bare sign, or that you receive no more than you see: for Christ saith, that it is his body, and Paul saith, that it is the communion of Christs body & blood. ⟨image 88⟩²Therefore there is more in Sacramental bread, than in common bread: though the nature be not changed, yet the use is changed; it doth not only nourish the body as it did before, but it bringeth a bread with it which nourisheth the soul: for as sure as we receive bread, so sure we receive Christ: not only the benefits of Christ, but Christ, although not in a Popish manner: yet we are so joined unto him, as though we were but one body. As the spouse ³doth not marry with the lands and goods, but with the man himself, and being partaker of him, is made partaker of them: so the faithful do not only marry with Christs benefits, but with Christ himself; and being partakers of him, they are made partakers of his benefits: for Christ may not ⟨image 89⟩be divided from his benefits, no more than the Sun from his light. It is said, the Father gave us ⁴his Son, and so the Son giveth us himself. As the bread is a sign of his body: so the giving of the bread is a sign of the giving of his body: like a Pelican which letteth her young ones suck her blood: so that we may say, the Lord invited us to Supper, and he himself was our meat. But if you ask how this is? I must answer, it is a mystery: but if I could tell it, it were no mystery. Yet as it is said, when three men walked in the middest of the furnace, one like the Son of GOD ⁵walked amongst them. So, when the faithful receive the Bread and Wine, one like the Son of God seemeth to come unto them, which fills them with peace ⟨image 89⟩