A BRIEF TREATISE

UPON

THE LORD'S SUPPER:

BY

DR. NICHOLAS RIDLEY,

BISHOP AND MARTYR.

WRITTEN A LITTLE BEFORE HIS DEATH.

In the year 1544, Luther had written with great warmth against the opinions of the Helvetian divines, to which they replied in the following year, explaining their doctrine and faith. The latter work inclined Ridley to give the question a fair examination, he having hitherto held the doctrine of transubstantiation. He also procured a little treatise, written seven hundred years before, by Ratramus or Bertram, a monk of Corbie, at the request of the emperor, Charles the Bald, about A.D. 840.

From this book Ridley learned that the determination of the church in favour of transubstantiation had not been so early or so general as he had supposed, for it showed that Bertram, a catholic doctor, held contrary to the present decrees, and that the faithful at that time were divided in their opinions upon the subject, without either party being condemned as heretics. This fact at once destroyed that foundation of the authority of the church on which Ridley had depended, and left him open to consider the reasonings of Bertram, who establishes his doctrine of the figurative and mysterious body and blood by the evidence of the senses, and the nature and analogy of Sacraments, and does not require the belief of the monstrous absurdity of the change of a piece of bread into flesh and blood, (to say nothing of the whole body of Christ, and his soul also, as the Romish doctrine asserts,) considering that the things seen and the things believed are not all one; as seen, they feed the corruptible body, being themselves corruptible; as believed, they feed our immortal souls, being themselves immortal. Bertram confirmed that doctrine by scripture, and observes,―Think not so grossly, as that the actual flesh and blood of Christ were given to be eaten and drunk, for that shall ascend up to heaven, and even could you actually eat and drink this flesh and blood, it would be of no benefit, "for the flesh profiteth nothing," but you shall eat and drink it in the mystery, in virtue, power, and efficacy;-"It is the Spirit that giveth life." He also showed that the Fathers of the church before him understood respecting this Sacrament in the same manner. See Gloucester Ridley's Life of Ridley, p. 165, &c.

Ridley was thus induced fully to examine the subject, and the result was, that the main doctrine of popery no longer influenced the mind of Cranmer or himself. In April, 1554, he was called upon to dispute publicly at Oxford, respecting the doctrine of transubstantiation, on which occasion he produced a protest in the Latin language, containing his views upon the subject drawn up in a close and logical manner. Subsequently, while in prison and waiting his martyrdom, he stated nearly the same arguments in a more popular form in the treatise here given.

ON

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

MANY things confound a weak memory; a few places well weighed and perceived, lighten the understanding. Truth is to be searched for where it is certain to be had. Though God speaks the truth by man, yet man's word which God has not revealed to be his, a man may doubt, without mistrust in God. Christ is the truth of God revealed unto man from heaven by God himself; and therefore in his word the truth is to be found, which is to be embraced by all that are his. Christ bids us to ask, and we shall have; to search, and we shall find; to knock, and it shall be opened unto us.

Therefore, O heavenly Father, the author and fountain of all truth, the unfathomable sea of all understanding; send down, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, and lighten our understandings with the beams of thy heavenly grace. We ask thee this, O merciful Father, not in respect of our deserts, but for thy dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake. Thou knowest, O heavenly Father, that the controversy about the Sacrament of the blessed body and blood of thy dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, has not only of late troubled the church of England, France, Germany and Italy, but also

many years ago. The fault is ours, no doubt thereof, for we have deserved thy plague.

But, O Lord, be merciful, and relieve our misery with some light of grace. Thou knowest, O Lord, how this wicked world rolleth up and down, and reeleth to and fro, and careth not what thy will is, so it may abide in wealth. If truth have wealth, then who are so stout to defend the truth as they! But if Christ's cross be laid on truth's back, then they vanish away straight, as wax before the fire. But these are not they, O heavenly Father, for whom I make my greatest moan, but for those silly ones, O Lord, which have a zeal unto thee; thosc, I mean, who would wish to know thy will, and yet are hindered, holden back, and blinded, by the subtleties of Satan and his ministers, the wickedness of this wretched world, and the sinful lusts and affections of the flesh.

Alas! Lord, thou knowest we are of ourselves but flesh, wherein there dwelleth nothing that is good. How then is it possible for man without thee, O Lord, to understand thy truth indeed? Can the natural man perceive the will of God? O Lord, to whom thou givest a zeal for thee, give them also, we beseech thee, the knowledge of thy blessed will. Suffer not them, O Lord, blindly to be led to strive against thee, as thou didst those, alas! that crucified thine own dear Son; forgive them, O Lord, for thy dear Son's sake, for they know not what they do. Alas! O Lord, for lack of knowledge, they think that they do unto thee good service, even when they most cruelly rage against thee. Remember, O Lord, we beseech thee, for whom thy martyr Stephen did pray, and whom thine holy apostle Paul did so truly and earnestly love, that for their salvation, he wished himself accursed for them. Remember, O heavenly

1 Ignorant, weak.