[Sidenote: Athanasius. 3. li. qui dix. verb.] Also Athanasius sayeth. _Spiritus est qui uiuificat, caro non prodest quicquà: uerba que ego locutus sum, spiritus sunt & uita. Nam & hoc loco utrumque de seipso dicit carnem & spiritum, & spiritum ab eo quod est secundum carnem distinxit, ut non solum uisibile, sed etiam inuisibile quod in ipso erat credentes discant, quod & ea que dicit non sunt carnalia sed spiritualia. Quod enim comedentibus suffecisset corpus, ut totius mundi alimonia fiat? Sed ea propter meminit ascensus filii hominis in cœlum ut illos a corporali cogitacione auelleret, & post hac discant carnem dictā cibum cœlestem superne uenientem & spiritualem alimoniam quam ipse det, nā quæ locutus sum (inquit) uobis spiritus sunt & uita._ That is to saye: it is the spyryte that quyckeneth, the fleshe profyteth nothynge. The wordes which I speake vnto you, are spiryte and lyfe. For in this place also he meaneth both of hys owne fleshe and his owne spyryte, and he deuyded the spiryte from the fleshe: that they myght knowe through faythe not onelye the vysyble parte, but also the invysyble parte that was in hym, and also that the wordes which he spake were not carnall, but spirytuall. For what bodye shulde haue suffysed to haue bene the meate of all the worlde? And euen therfore ded he make mencyon of the ascensyon of the sonne of man in to heauen, that he myght wythdrawe them from the bodelye ymagynacyon, that they myght hereafter learne, that the fleshe was called heauēly meate which cōmeth frō a boue, & spirytuall meate which he wolde geue. For (sayeth Christe) the wordes that I haue spokē vnto you, are spiryte & lyfe. Here you maye see that Christe spake yt of his owne fleshe, & playnely that yt ded nothynge profyte as infideles ded vnderstonde hym: For els yt geueth lyfe, as yt is receyued of the faythfull in a mystery. [Sidenote: Bartrame.] For as Bartrame sayeth, in this mysterye of the bodye and bloode, is a spirytuall operacyon which geueth lyfe. Without the which operacyon those mysteryes do no thynge profytte, for surelye (sayth he) they may feade the bodye, but the soule they can not feade. Besydes that the scrypture sayeth, that that entreth in by the mouth doth not defyle a man, for as Christe sayeth, it is caste forthe in to the drawght. And by the same reason it foloweth that it doth not sāctyfye or make a man holye. But the sacrament entreth in by the mouth: therfore yt doth folowe that (of it selfe) it doth not sāctyfye or make holye any mā. And of this texte shulde folowe two incōueniences, yf the sacramēte were the naturall bodye of Christ. Fyrste it shulde folowe that the body of Christ shulde not sāctyfye the faythfull because it ētreth in by the mouth. And agayne yt shulde folowe, that the bodye of Christe shulde be caste out in to the drawght, whych thynge is abhominable. Wherfore yt muste neades folowe, that the sacramēt cā not be his naturall bodye.