An account of a disputation at Oxford, anno dom. 1554 with A treatise of…

The controversy no doubt which at this day troubleth the Church (wherein any mean learned man either old or new, doth stand in) is not whether the holy Sacrament of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ is no better than a piece of common bread or no, or whether the Lords Table be no more to be regarded than the table of any earthly man or no, or whether it be a bare sign or figure of Christ and nothing else or no, for all do grant that St. Pauls words do require that the Bread which we brake is the partaking of the Body of Christ, and also all do grant him that eateth of that Bread and drinketh of that ⟨p. 8⟩Cup unworthily, to be guilty of the Lords Death, and to eat and drink his own damnation, because he esteemed not the Lords Body. All do grant that these words of Paul when he saith [if we eat, it advantageth us nothing, or if we eat not, we want nothing thereby] are not spoken of the Lord's Table, but of other common meats. Thus then hitherto yet we all agree, but now let us see wherein the Dissension doth stand: the understanding of it wherein it doth chiefly stand, is a step to the true searching forth of the Truth, for who can seek well a Remedy if he know not before the Disease?

The controversy no doubt which at this day troubleth the Church (wherein any mean learned man either old or new, doth stand in) is not whether the holy Sacrament of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ is no better than a piece of common bread or no, or whether the Lords Table be no more to be regarded than the table of any earthly man or no, or whether it be a bare sign or figure of Christ and nothing else or no, for all do grant that St. Pauls words do require that the Bread which we brake is the partaking of the Body of Christ, and also all do grant him that eateth of that Bread and drinketh of that ⟨p. 8⟩Cup unworthily, to be guilty of the Lords Death, and to eat and drink his own damnation, because he esteem'd not the Lords Body. All do grant that these words of Paul when he saith [if we eat, it advantageth us nothing, or if we eat not, we want nothing thereby] are not spoken of the Lord's Table, but of other common meats. Thus then hitherto yet we all agree, but now let us see wherein the Dissention doth stand: the understanding of it wherein it doth chiefly stand, is a step to the true searching forth of the Truth, for who can seek well a Remedy if he know not before the Disease?