A67926:3430
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol.…Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol.…
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol. 2, part 1] with an universal history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitive age to these latter times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland. Newly revised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time again published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the help of Christ our Lord) John Fox, which desireth thee good reader to help him with thy prayer.Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 2, part 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.
London: printed by John Daye, 1583London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1583
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
Book 8 › Scriptural evidences 2: The second part of this matter.
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.
First,1 we find in the second book of Tertullian which he writeth against Marcion: Ipse Christus nec panem reprobavit, &c. Christ did not reprove the bread, because it doth represent his body. This Marcion, against whom Tertullian doth thus write, did erroneously reprove all creatures as evil. Which thing Tertullian doth improve by the Sacrament, saying as is above written:2 Christ did not reprove the bread, which representeth his body. As who would say: If Christ had judged the bread evil, then would he not have left it for a sign or sacrament to represent his blessed body. Agreeably to the same doth he also say in the fourth book made against the said Marcion in these words: Christus acceptum panem & distributum Discipulis, corpus suum illud fecit, &c. 3Christ made that same bread which he took and distributed to his Disciples, his body, saying: This is my body, that is to say, the figure of my body. But it could not have been a figure, unless it were the body of a very true thing in deed. Furthermore, a void thing which is a fantasy, could not receive a figure or a form. This Marcion had an erroneous opinion, that Christ had no natural body,4 but a body fantastical. Which error or heresy, this famous Doctor Tertullian doth improve by the holy Sacrament, saying as afore is written, That the Sacrament is a figure of Christs body: Ergo, Christ had a very and true body. For a thing which is vain and fantastical, can receive no figure. So that in both places we may clearly perceive his interpretation of these words: This is my body: Which interpretation is not new but authentic or full ancient, like as is the Writer. And this interpretation do I the rather allow, because none of the old Doctors,5 which followed him, did ever improve him therefore, but rather have followed it, as appeareth by holy Augustine. In the Preface upon the third Psalm, doth the said Augustine highly commend the wonderful sufferance of Christ, which so long did suffer and forbear Judas, as if he had been a good and an honest man: where as notwithstanding he did know his traitorous thoughts,