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

Jesus made the Bread which he took and distributed ¹to his Disciples, his Body, saying, This is my Body; that is to say, (saith Tertullian) a Figure of my Body. In this place it is plain, that after Tertullian his Exposition, that Christ meant not, by calling of Bread his Body, and the Wine his Blood, that either the Bread was his Natural Body, or the Wine his Natural Blood; but he called them his Body and Blood, because he would institute them to be unto us Sacraments; that is, holy Tokens and Signs of his Body ⟨p. 34⟩and Blood, that by them remembering, and firmly believing the benefits procured to us by his Body, which was torn and Crucified for us, and of his Blood which was shed for us upon the Cross; And so with thanks receiving these holy Sacraments according to Christs Institution, might by the same be spiritually nourished and fed, to the increase of all Godliness in us here in our Pilgrimage and Journey wherein we walk unto Everlasting Life. This was undoubtedly Christ our Saviours mind, and this is Tertullian's Exposition. The wrangling that the Papists do make to delude this saying of Tertullian's, it is too far out of all frame. Tertullian writeth here, say they, as none hath done either before him, or after him. This saying is too-too manifestly false; for Origen, Hilary, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, St. Augustine, and other old Authors likewise do call the Sacrament a Figure of Christs Body. And where they say, that Tertullian wrote this when he was in a heat of Disputation with an Heretic, coveting by all means to overcome his Adversaries: as who would say he would not take heed what he did say, and specially what he would write in so high a matter, so that he might have the upper hand of his Adversary. Is this credible to be true in any Godly Wise Man? How much less then is it worthy to be thought and credited in a Man of so great a Wit, Learning, and Excellency as Tertullian is worthily esteemed ever to have been.

Jesus made the Bread which he took and distributed ¹to his Disciples, his Body, saying, This is my Body; that is to say, (saith Tertullian) a Figure of my Body. In this place it is plain, that after Tertullian his Exposition, that Christ meant not, by calling of Bread his Body, and the Wine his Blood, that either the Bread was his Natural Body, or the Wine his Natural Blood; but he call'd them his Body and Blood, because he would institute them to be unto us Sacraments; that is, holy Tokens and Signs of his Body