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

Now then, will ye say, what kind of presence will they grant, and what do they deny? Briefly they deny the presence of Christs Body in the natural substance of his human, and assumpt nature, and grant the presence of the same by Grace, that is: They affirm and say that the substance of the natural body and blood of Christ is only remaining in Heaven, and so shall be until the latter day, when he shall come again in glory accompanied with the angels of Heaven ⟨p. 11⟩to judge both the quick and the dead. And the same natural substance of the very Body and Blood of Christ, because it is united to the divine nature in Christ the second person in the Trinity, therefore it hath not only Life in it self, but is also able, and doth give life unto so many as be, or shall be partakers thereof; that is to all that do believe in his name, which are not born of blood, (as John saith) or of the will of flesh, or of the will of man, but are born of God, tho the self same substance abide still in Heaven, and they, for the time of their Pilgrimage, dwell here upon Earth. By Grace I said, that is by the gift of this life mentioned in John, and the properties for the same, meet for a Pilgrimage here upon Earth, the same body of Christ is here present with us. As for example; we say the Sun which in substance never removeth his place out of the Heavens, is yet present here by his Beams, Light, and natural Influence where it shineth upon the Earth: for Gods word, and his Sacraments be as it were the Beams of Christ, who is Sol Justitiae.

Thus thou hast heard wherein doth stand the principal state and chief point of all the Controversies which do properly pertain unto the nature of this Sacrament. As for the use thereof, I grant there be many other things, whereof here I have spoken of nothing at all.

And now, least thou justly mayest complain and say, that I have in opening this matter done nothing else but digged a Pit, and have not shut it up again, or broken a Gap and have not made it up, or opened the Book, and have not closed it again, or else to call me what they list, as neutral, Dissembler, &c. Therefore here now I will by Gods Grace not only shortly, but also so clearly, and plainly as I can, make thee