A19563:598
An answerAn aunsvvere
An answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and metropolitan, unto a crafty and sophistical cavillation, devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law, late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly doctrine of the most holy sacrament, of the body and blood of our saviour Jesus Christ Wherein is also, as occasion serveth, answered such places of the book of Doct. Richard Smith, as may seem any thing worthy the answering. Here is also the true copy of the book written, and in open court delivered, by D. Stephen Gardiner ...An aunsvvere by the Reuerend Father in God Thomas Archbyshop of Canterbury, primate of all England and metropolitane, vnto a craftie and sophisticall cauillation, deuised by Stephen Gardiner Doctour of Law, late Byshop of Winchester agaynst the true and godly doctrine of the most holy sacrament, of the body and bloud of our sauiour Iesu Christ Wherein is also, as occasion serueth, aunswered such places of the booke of Doct. Richard Smith, as may seeme any thyng worthy the aunsweryng. Here is also the true copy of the booke written, and in open court deliuered, by D. Stephen Gardiner ...
London: printed by John Daye, 1580London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1580
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
And yet Abraham's will alone was not called the oblation of his son,1 but his will declared by many facts and circumstances: *For he carried his son three days journey to the place where God had appointed him to slay and offer his son Isaac, whom he most entirely loved. He cut wood to make the fire for that purpose, he laid the wood upon his sons back, and made him to carry the same wood wherewith he should be burnt. ⟨p. 86⟩And Abraham himself (commanding his servants to tarry at the foot of the hill) carried the fire and sword wherewith he intended (as God had commanded) to kill his own son whom he so dearly loved. And by the way as they went, his son said unto his father: Father, see, here is fire and wood, but where is the sacrifice that must be killed? How these words of the son pierced the fathers hart, every loving father may judge by the affection which he beareth to his own children. For what man would not have been abashed and stayed at these words? thinking thus within him self: Alas sweet son, thou doest ask me where the sacrifice is, thy self art the same sacrifice that must be slain, & thou (poor innocent) cariest thine own death upon thy back, and the wood wherewith thy self must be burnt. Thou art he whom I must slay, which art most innocent, and never offended. Such thoughts you may be sure, pierced through Abraham's hart, no less then the very death of his son should have done.3 As David lamentably bewailed his son lying in the pangs of death, but after he was dead, he took his death quietly & comfortably enough. But nothing could altar Abraham's hart, or move him to disobey God, but forth on he goeth with his son to the place which God had appointed, and there he made an altar, and laid the wood upon it, and bound his son, & laid him upon the heap of the wood in the altar, and took the sword in his hand, and lifted up his arm to strike, and kill his son, and would have done so in deed if the angel of God had not letted him, commanding him in the stead of his son to take a ram, that was fast by the horns in the briars. This obedience of Abraham unto Gods commandment in offering of his son, declared by so many acts and circumstances, is called in the Scripture the offering of his son, and not the will only.