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

But some say if we shall thus admit figures in Doctrine, then shall all the Articles of our Faith by figures and allegories shortly be transformed. I say it is like fault, and even the same, to deny the figure when the place so requireth; as vainly to make It a figurative speech which is to be understood in its proper signification. The rule whereby it is known when the speech is figurative, and when it is none St. Aug. in his Book de Doctrina Christi lib. 3. ch. 16. giveth diverse learned Lessons, of the which one is this - If (saith he) the Scripture doth seem to command a thing which ⟨p. 20⟩is wicked or ungodly, or to forbid a thing that Charity doth require, then know you that the speech is figurative. As for example, he bringeth the saying of Christ, the 6th of John Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye can have no Life in you. It seemeth to command a wicked or ungodly thing, wherefore it is a figurative speech, commanding to have communion or fellowship with Christs passion, and devoutly and wholesomely to lay up in memory that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us. This Lesson of St. Aug. I have therefore the rather set forth, because as it teacheth us to understand that place in John figuratively; even so surely the same Lesson with the example of St. Aug. Exposition thereof, teacheth us not only by the same to understand Christs words in the institution of the Sacrament both of his Body and of his Blood figuratively, but also the very true meaning and understanding of the same. For if to command to eat the flesh of the Son of man, and to drink his blood seemeth to command an inconvenience, or an ungodly thing, and is even so indeed if it be understood as the words do stand in their proper signification, and therefore must be understood figuratively and spiritually (as St. Aug. doth learnedly and godly interpret them) then surely Christ commanding in his last Supper to eat his Body and to drink his Blood, seemeth to command in sound of words as great, and even the same inconvenience and ungodliness as did his words in the sixth Chapter of St. John; and therefore must even by the same reason be likewise understood and expounded figuratively, and spiritually, and as St. Aug did the other. Whereunto the same exposition of St. Aug.

But some say if we shall thus admit figures in Doctrine, then shall all the Articles of our Faith by figures and allegories shortly be transformed. I say it is like fault, and even the same, to deny the figure when the place so requireth; as vainly to make It a figurative speech which is to be understood in its proper signification. The rule whereby it is known when the speech is figurative, and when it is none St. Aug. in his Book de Doctrina Christi lib. 3. ch. 16. giveth diverse learned Lessons, of the which one is this - If (saith he) the Scripture doth seem to command a thing which