A73348:222
[The principal points which are at this day in controversy, concerning the holly supper…[The principal points which are at this daye in controuersie, concerning the holly supper…
[The principal points which are at this day in controversy, concerning the holly supper and of the mass.][The principal points which are at this daye in controuersie, concerning the holly supper and of the masse.]
London: printed by C. Barker, 1579
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
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.
Chapter xv.
Whether the ministry aswell of the word as of the sacraments be aswell ordained for the dead as for the living, & whether the work of the same may stretch out so far as to the dead, & whether the priests may better receive the supper for them then the Baptism, & better then the other living Christians.
Whether the ministery aswel of the word as of the sacraments be aswel ordained for the dead as for the liuing, & whether the worke of the same may stretch out so farre as to the dead, & whether the priestes may better receiue the supper for them then the Baptisme, & better then the other liuing Christians.
And further I ask them whether the Lord did ordain the sacraments either for the living,1 ⟨image 80⟩or for the dead,2 or for both together? It is certain that it is not for the dead, but for the living only. For seeing that the sacraments cannot be administered without the word, upon the which they are grounded, it is very certain, that none may be capable of them, but only those unto whom the word may be administered with their signs.3 Now so it is, that the one neither the other may be administered to the dead. From whence it also followeth, that the sacraments do no more belong unto them, then the preaching of the Gospel which is ordinarily used in the Church. And to say, that the living may receive them for them, I have already declared that it cannot be done: For if the very living may not do it for those that are living, much less yet may they do it for the dead. And if it were so that it mought be done, wherefore also should not the other Christians aswell do it, for their kinsmen and friends which are dead, as the priests & the monks: And if they mought do it in respect of the supper, wherefore mought they not do it in respect of baptism, yea more justly, according to their doctrine? for they place so great necessity in the outward sign thereof, that they do affirm that those cannot be saved which cannot attain thereunto. For the which cause they have forged a Limb for the children which are dead without baptism,