For as by Adam all die, even so by Christ shall all live, and every man in his own order; for as one clearness is in the sun, another in the moon, and a star in clearness is nothing in comparison to the sun. Even so is the again rising of the dead, for we are sown in corruption and shall rise again incorruptible, we are sown in infirmity, and shall rise again in strength; we are sown in natural bodies, and shall rise again spiritual bodies. Then if Christ shall change thus our deadly* bodies by death, and God the Father spared not his own Son, as it is written, but that death should reign in him as in us, and that he should be translated into a spiritual body, as the first again rising of dead men. Then how say the hypocrites that take on them to make our Lord's body? Make they the glorified body? Either make they again the spiritual body which is risen from death to life? or make they the fleshly body as it was before he suffered death? And if they say also that they make the spiritual body of Christ, it may not be so, for what Christ said and did, he did as he was at supper before he suffered his passion; as it is written that the spiritual body of Christ rose again from death to life. Matt. xxviii. Also that he ascended up to heaven, and that he will abide there till he come to judge the quick and the dead. And if they say that they make Christ's body as it was before he had suffered his passion, then must they needs grant that Christ is to die. yet. For by all Пoly Scriptures he was promised to die, and that he should give lordship of everlasting life.

Furthermore, if they say that Christ made his body of bread, I ask, With what words made he it? Not with these words, "Hoc est corpus meum;" that is to say in English, "This is my body," for they are the words of giving, and not of making, which he said. after that he brake the bread; then parting it among his disciples and apostles. Therefore if Christ had made of that bread his body, [he] had made it in his blessing, or else in giving of thanks, and not in the words of giving; for if Christ had spoken of the material bread that he had in his hands when he said, "Hoc est corpus meum," "This is my body," it was made before, or else the word had been a lie. For if I say, This is my hand, and if it be not a hand, then am I a liar; therefore seek carefully if ye can find two words of blessing, or of giving of thanks, wherewith Christ made his body and blood of the bread and wine. And that all the clerks of the earth know not, for if ye might find or know those words, then should ye wax great masters above Christ, and then ye might be givers of his substance, and as fathers and makers of him, and that

* Mortal

he should worship you, as it is written, Thou shalt worship thy Of such as desire such worship Paul of the. man of sin that en

father and mother. Exod. xx. against God's law, speaketh St. hanceth himself as if he were God. And he is worshiped over all things as God, and showeth himself as he were God. Where our clergy are guilty in this, judge ye or they that know most, for they say that when ye have said, "Hoc est corpus meum," that is to say, "This is my body;" which ye call the words of consecration, or else of making; and when they are said over the bread, ye say that there is left no bread, but it is the body of the Lord. So that in the bread there remaineth nothing but a heap of accidents, as witness ruggedness, roundness, savor, touching, and tasting, and such other accidents. Then, if thou sayest that the flesh and blood of Christ, that is to say, his manhood, is made more, or increased by so much as the ministration of bread and wine is, the which ye minister-if ye say it is so-then thou must needs consent that the thing which is not God to-day shall be God to-morrow; yea, and that the thing which is without spirit of life, but groweth in the field by kind, shall be God at another time. And we all ought to believe that he was without beginning, and without ending; and not made, for if the manhood of Christ were increased every day by so much as the bread and wine draweth to that ye minister, he should increase more in one day by cart-loads than he did in thirtytwo years when he was here in earth.

And if thou makest the body of the Lord in those words, "Hoc est corpus meum;" that is to say, "This is my body." And if thou mayest make the body of the Lord in those words, "This is my body," thou thyself must be the person of Christ, or else there is a false God; for if it be thy body as thou sayest, then it is the body of a false knave or of a drunken man, or of a thief, or of a lecherer or full of other sins, and then there is an unclean body for any man to worship for God! For even if Christ had made there his body of material bread in the said words, as I know they are not the words of making, what earthly man had power to do as he did? For in all Holy Scripture, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Apocalypse, there are no words written of the making of Christ's body; but there are written that Christ was the Son of the Father, and that he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and that he took flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, and that he was dead, and that he rose again from death on the third day, and that he ascended to heaven very God and man, and that we should believe ir

* Advanceth.

all scriptures that are written of him, and that he is to come to judge the quick and the dead, and that the same Christ Jesus, King and Saviour, was at the beginning with the Father and the Holy Ghost, making all things of naught, both heaven and earth, and all things that are therein; working by word of his virtue, for he said, Be it done, and it was done, Gen. i., whose works never earthly man might comprehend, either make. And yet the words of the making of these things are written in the beginning of Genesis, even as God spake them; and if ye can not make the work that he made, and have the word by which he made it, how shall ye make him that made the works? You have no words of authority or power left you on earth by which ye should do this, but ye have feigned this craft of your false errors, which some of you understand not; for it is prophesied, Isaiah vi. xlii., Matt. xiii., Luke viii., and Mark iv., They shall have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not; and shall see prophesies, and shall not understand, lest they be converted; for I hide them from the hearts of those people; their hearts are greatly fatted. And this thing is done to you for the wickedness of your errors in unbelief; therefore be ye converted from the worst sin, as it is written, When Moses was in the hill with God, Exod. xxxii., the people made a calf and worshiped it as God. And God spake to Moses, Go, for the people have done the worst sin to make and worship alien gods.

But now I shall ask you a word; answer ye me, Whether is the body of the Lord made at once or at twice? Is both the flesh and the blood in the host of the bread? or else is the flesh made at one time, and the blood made at other time; that is to say the wine in the chalice? If thou wilt say it is full and wholly the manhood of Christ in the host of bread, both flesh and blood, skin, hair, and bones, then makest thou us to worship a false god in the chalice, which is unconjured when ye worship the bread; and if ye say the flesh is in the bread, and the blood in the wine, then thou must grant, if thy craft be true, as it is not indeed, that the manhood of Christ is parted, and that he is made at two times. For first thou takest the host of bread, or a piece of bread, and makest it as ye say, and the innocent peoplet worship it. And then thou takest to thee the chalice, and likewise marrest, makest, I would have said, the blood in it, and then they worship it also, and if it be so as I am sure that the flesh and blood of Christ ascended, then are ye false harlots to God and to us; for when we shall be houselled§ ye bring

Power.

False servants, cheats.

Simple, ignorant people.
Receive the sacrament.

to us the dry flesh, and let the blood be away; for ye give us after the bread, wine and water, and sometimes clean water unblessed, or rather conjured, by the virtue of your craft; and yet ye say, under the host of bread is the full manhood of Christ. Then by your own confession must it needs be that we worship a false god in the chal ice, which is unconjured when we worship the bread, and worship the one as the other; but where find ye that ever Christ or any of His disciples taught any man to worship this bread or wine?

Therefore, what shall we say of the apostles that were so much with Christ, and were called by the Holy Ghost; had they forgotten to set it in the creed when they made it, which is Christian men's belief? Or else we might say that they knew no such God, for they believe in no more gods but in him that was at the beginning, and made of naught all things visible and invisible, Heb. i. Ps. cii., which Lord took flesh and blood, being in the Virgin, the same God. But ye have many false ways, to beguile the innocent people with sleights of the fiend.

For ye say that in every host each piece is the whole manhood. of Christ, or full substance of him. For ye say as a man may take a glass, and break the glass into many pieces, and in every piece properly thou mayest see thy face, and yet thy face is not parted. So ye say the Lord's body is in each host or piece, and his body is not parted. And this is a full subtle question to beguile an innocent fool, but will ye take heed of this subtle question, how a man may take a glass and behold the very likeness of his own face, and yet it is not his face, but the likeness of his face? for if it were his very face, then he must needs have two faces, one on his body and another in the glass! And if the glass were broken in many places, so there should be many faces more by the glass than by the body, and each man shall make as many faces to them as they would; but as ye may see the mind or likeness of your face, which is not the very face, but the figure thereof, so the bread is the figure or mind of Christ's body in earth, and therefore Christ said, As oft as ye do this thing do it in mind of me, Luke xxii.

Also ye say this, As a man may light many candles at one candle, and yet the light of that candle is never the more nor ever the less. So ye say that the manhood of Christ descendeth into each part of every host, and the manhood of Christ is never the more nor less. Where then becometh your ministrations? For if a man light many candles at one candle, as long as they burn there will be many candles lighted, and as well the last candle as the first; and so by this reason, if ye shall fetch your word at God, and make God, there

must needs be many gods, and that is forbidden in the first com mandment, Exod. xx. And as for making more, either making less, of Christ's manhood, i: lieth not in your power to come there nigh, neither to touch it, for it is ascended into heaven in a spiritual body, Matt. xxviii., which he suffered not Mary Magdalen to touch, when her sins were forgiven to her.

Therefore all the sacraments that are left here in earth are but minds of the body of Christ, for a sacrament is no more to say but a sign or mind of a thing passed, or a thing to come; for when Jesus spake of the bread, and said to his disciples, Luke xxii., As ye do this thing, do it in mind of me, it was set for a mind of good things passed of Christ's body; but when the angel showed to John, Apocalypse xvii., the sacraments of the woman and of the beast that bare her, it was set for a mind of evil things to come on the face of the earth, and great destroying of the people of God. And in the old law there were many figures or minds of things to come. For before Christ, circumcision was commanded by a law; and he that kept not the law was slain. And yet St. Paul saith, Rom., ii. And neither is it circumcision that is openly in the flesh, but he that is circumcised of heart in spirit, not the letter whose praising is not of men, but of God. Peter saith in the third chapter of his epistle, And so baptism of like form maketh not us safe, but the putting away of the filthiness of the flesh, and the having of good conscience in God by the again rising of our Lord Jesus Christ from death, that we should be made heirs of everlasting life, he went up into heaven, and angels, and powers, and virtues, are made subjects to Him.

And also the Scripture saith of John Baptist, Matt. iii., that he preached in the wilderness and said, A stronger than I shall come after me, and I am not worthy to kneel down and unlace his shoe; and yet Christ said that he was more than a prophet. See also Isaiah xl. Matt. xi. How may ye then say that ye are worthy to make his body, and yet your works bear witness that ye are less than the prophets, for if ye were not, ye should not teach the people to worship the sacraments or minds* of Christ for Christ himself; which sacraments or figures are lawful as God taught them and left them. unto us, as the sacrifices or minds of the old law were full good. As it is written, They that kept them should live in them, Paul, Rom. x. And so the bread that Christ brake was left to us for mind of things passed for the body of Christ, that we should believe he was a very man in kind as we are, but as God in power, and that

*Remembrances.