vvhich ascendyng vppe into heauen promiseth, saying: Beholde I am here vvith you continually vntill the end of the vvorlde? But the vvorde incarnate taryeth and also goeth avvay. It departeth in bodye, and taryeth in diuinitie. And therefore he sayth that he taried vvith them: euen he vvhich vvas euer present vvith them by hys inuisible povver, & novve departed by his corporall vision. In like wise doth he testifie in the homely of Easter day.

MarginaliaBede in hom. in cap. 16. Ioan.With these doth Bede accorde in an homelie of Easter, in which he declareth this text, Ioh. 16. A litle vvhile, and ye shall not see me: And agayne, a litle vvhile and ye shall see me. And also in an homelie of the vigill of Pentecoste. And who can otherwise saye or thinke, knowyng the Scripture and our beliefe, but that the naturall body of Christ is so assumpt into heauen all whole, that it must there abyde without returnyng , vntill the generall iudgement. Notwithstandyng, seyng this is the chief poynt wherupon I seke to establishe my sentence in this matter of the holy Sacrament, that Christes holy & naturall body is so assumpt into heauen, þ^t there it must remayne all whole without returnyng vntill the generall dome: I will yet with the permissiō of your grace, adde one or two arguments deduced out of the Scriptures, to declare further my sentence to be faythfull and Catholicke.

MarginaliaChrist in his māhead not in many places at once.First, as Christ was enclosed and so borne about in the wombe of hys mother beyng a Virgine vndefyled, & after was borne into thys worlde, and put in a maunger, and so he growyng in age dyd abyde in diuerse places, but in one after an other, sometyme in Galyle, some tyme in Samaria, somtyme in Iury, sometyme beyond, and sometyme on this side of Iordane, and consequentlye was crucified at Hierusalem, there beyng enclosed and buryed in a graue, from whēce he dyd aryse, so that the Angels testified of him: He is rysen and is not here. MarginaliaMath. 28.Math. 28. and as at þ^e tyme appoynted, after hys resurrectiō, he was assumpt or lyfted vp into heauē, from the top of the Mount of Oliuet, in the sight of hys disciples, a cloude compassyng hym about: Euen so shall he come from the same celestiall place corporally, as they did see hym to depart out of one place corporally, accordyng to the testimony of the Aungels, MarginaliaAct. 1.Act. 1. So that in this we may vndoubtedly finde that Christ, as touching his manhede, cā not be corporally in many and diuers places at once, and so to bee corporally in hys naturall body in heauen and also in the earth, & that it is moreouer, in so many partes of the world, as men haue affirmed.

MarginaliaThe property of mans nature, not to be sequestred frō Christ.Neither doth the Scripture require that we should spoyle Christ of the propertie of mans nature, whiche is to be one place, whō the same Scripture doth perpetually witnesse and teach to be man, and so to confounde the condition of hys bodily nature, with the nature Diuine. Paul doth teache that Christ in māhede, was made in all poyntes lyke vnto vs hys brethren, synne excepted: how then can hys body bee in more places at once, vnlyke vnto the naturall propertie of the bodyes of vs hys brethrē? But here do some witty Philosophers, yea, rather Sophisters then Diuines, bryng in to þ^e anullyng of Christes humanitie, a similitude of mans soule whiche beyng one, is yet so all whole in all our whole body, that it is sayd to be all whole in euery part of the body. MarginaliaThinges corporall and thinges spirituall, not to be compared.But such should remēber, þ^t it is no cōueniēt similitude which is made of thynges different and diuerse in nature, such as bee the soule and body of man, to proue them to haue like properties. This is as if they would proue Christes body to bee of one nature and propertie with hys soule, and that thynges naturally corporall, were not most diuers from creatures naturally spirituall.

Furthermore, if so it myght bee, that the body or flesh of Christ, were merely spirituall, and full lyke vnto the substaunce of Aungels, yet could it not in thys wyse folow, that hys body could be euery where, or in diuers places at once. Wherefore such subtilties are to be omitted, and the trade of Scripture should well lyke vs, MarginaliaThe body of Christ is locall and in one place.by which þ^e old Doctors do define, that the body of Iesu exalted or assumpt into heauē, must be locall, circumscript, and in one place: notwithstandyng that the veritie, spirituall grace, and frute that commeth of it, is diffused and spread abroad in all places, or euery where. How could Christ corporally depart out of this world, and leaue the earth, if he in the kyndes of bread and wine be, not onely corporally conteyned and receyued, but also there reserued, kept, and enclosed? What other thyng els do these wordes testifye, Iohn. xiij. But Iesus knovving that hys houre vvas come that hee shoulde passe out of this vvorlde to hys father, &c. MarginaliaIohn. 13.And in lyke forme, Luke. 24. And it came to passe that as hee blessed them, he departed from them, and vvas caryed vppe into heauē: MarginaliaLuke. 24.What do they signifie, if Christ went not verely out of thys world, hys naturall body beyng surely assumpt into heauen?

They do therfore vndoubtedly declare that Christ, beyng very God and very man, dyd verely departe out of this world in his natural body, his humanitie beynge assumpt into heauen, where it remayneth syttyng in glory with þ^e father: Where as yet his Deitie did not leaue þ^e world, ne depart out frō the earth. MarginaliaPhil. 2.Paul doth say Philip. 2. that of ij. things he wyst not which hee myght rather choose, that is to wyt, to abyde in þ^e flesh for preachyng the Gospell, or els to bee dissolued from the fleshe, seyng that to abyde with Christ is much and farre better. By the whiche Paul doth manifestly proue, that they be not presently with Christ, whiche yet do abyde mortal in the fleshe. Yet they be with Christ in such wyse, as the Scripture doth say that the beleuyng bee the temple of Christ. And as Paul doth say. 2. Cor. 13. Doe you not knovve your selues that Iesus Christ is in you? Marginalia2. Cor. 13.In whiche sense he also promised to bee with vs vnto the ende of the worlde. Christ therfore must be otherwise in that place, in which the Apostle desired to be with hym, beyng dissolued, and departed from his body, then he doth abyde eyther in the supper, or els in anye other places of the Churches. He therfore doth vndoubtedly meane heauen, whiche is the paradyse of perfyte blisse and glorye: Whereas Christ beyng a victour, triumpher, and conquerour ouer death, sinne, and hell, and ouer all creatures, doth reigne and remayne corporally. Thus doe I trust, that your grace doth see my sentence, this farreforth to be right Catholyke, Christen, and faythfull, according to holy scripture, to holy Fathers, and to the Articles of oure Christen beliefe. Which sentence is thus: Christes naturall bodye is so assumpt into heauen, where it sitteth or remayneth in glory of the Father, that it cā no more come from thence, that is to wytte, from heauen returne, vntyll the ende of the worlde: MarginaliaThe naturall body of Christ can not be both in heauen, and in earth locally.and therfore can not the same naturall body, naturally be here in the world, or in the Sacrament: For then should it be dpearted or gone out of the world, and yet be still remayninge in the worlde. It shoulde then be both to come, and already come, which is a contradiction, and variaunt from the nature of his manhede.

MarginaliaThe second part, how the naturall body of Christ is in the sacrament.Now my sentence in the seconde part of thys matter, is this (if so bee your grace shall please to knowe it, as I your poore & vnworthy, but full true subiect, would with all submission and instaunce besech you to knowe it) I graunt the holy Sacrament to be the verye and naturall bodye of our Sauiour, and his very naturall bloud, and that the naturall bodye and bloud of our Sauiour, is in the Sacrament after a certayne wyse, as after shall appeare. For so do the wordes of the supper testifye: Take, eate, this is my body vvhich is geuen for you. And againe: Drinke ye all of this, this is my bloude vvhich is of the nevve Testament, vvhich is shedde for many for the remißion of sinnes. Of which wordes, seing in them dependeth a great trial and proufe of this matter, and that for the interpretacion of them, is and hath bene all controuersie of this matter, I therfore shall shewe the interpretacion, that holye Doctors haue made of thē, that as to me semeth, be full worthy credite.

First, we fynde in the seconde booke of Tertullian which hee writeth against Marcion: Ipse Christus nec panem reprobauit, &&c. MarginaliaTertul. cōtra Marcionē. lib. 2.Christ did not reproue the bread, because it doth represent his bodye. This Marcion, agaynst whom Tertullian doth thus write, dyd erroniously reproue all creatures as euil. Which thing Tertullian doth improue by the Sacrament, sayinge as is aboue written: Christ dyd not reproue the bread, vvhich representeth hys body. MarginaliaThe bread representeth the body of Christ,As who would say: If Christ had iudged the bread euill, then would he not haue left it for a signe or Sacrament to represent hys blessed bodye. Agreablye to the same doth he also saye in the fourth booke made agaynst the sayd Marcion, in these wordes: Christus acceptum panem & distributum Discipulis, corpus suum illud fecit. &c. MarginaliaTertul. cōtra Marcionē. lib. 4.Christ made that same bread vvhich he tooke and distributed to his Disciples, his body, saying: This is my bodye, that is to say, the figure of my body. But it could not haue been a figure, vnlesse it vvere the body of a verye true thinge in deede. Furthermore, a voyde thinge vvhiche is a phantasie, coulde not receyue a figure or a forme. MarginaliaBread beareth a figure of Christes body.This Marcion had an erroneous opinion, that Christ had no naturall body, but a bodye phantasticall. Whiche errour or heresie, this famous doctor Tertullian doth improue by the holy Sacrament, saying as afore is written, that the Sacrament is a figure of Christes bodye: Ergo Christe