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and impossible a fancy: which it is in vain for men to think they can salve up with a pretence of Omnipotence. We question not the power of God; but his will: and do well know, he cannot will absolute contradictions: Deus hoc potenter non potest, as one said truly.

That, which we say of Christ's presence, holds no less of his Reception. For, so do we receive him into us, as he is present with us; neither can we corporally receive that, which is bodily absent. Although, besides the common incongruity of opinion, the corporal receiving of Christ hath in it a further prodigiousness and horror. All the novices of the Roman Schools are now ashamed of their Pope's Dentibus teritur: but, when their Doctors have made the best of their own tenet, they cannot avoid St. Austin's flagitium videtur præcipere. By how much the human flesh is and ought to be more dear, by so much more odious is the thought of eating it. Neither let them imagine, they can escape the imputation of a hateful savageness, in this act, for that it is not presented to them in the form of flesh; while they profess to know it is so, howsoever it appeareth. Let some skilful cook so dress man's flesh, in the mixtures of his artificial hashes and tasteful sauces, that it cannot be discerned by the sense; yet, if I shall afterwards understand that I have eaten it, though thus covertly conveyed, I cannot but abhor to think of so unnatural a diet. Corporally then to eat, if it were possible, the flesh of Christ, as it could, in our Saviour's own word, profit nothing; John vi. 63: so it could be no other, than a kind of religious cannibalism; which both nature and grace cannot but justly rise against.

Since, therefore, the Body of Christ cannot be said to be corporally present or received by us, it must needs follow, that there is no way of his presence or receipt in the Sacrament, but spiritual: which the Church of England hath laboured so fully to express, both in her Holy Liturgy and publicly-authorized Homilies, that there is no one point of divine truth, which she hath more punctually and plainly laid down before us.

What can be more evident, than that, which she hath said in the Second Exhortation before the Communion? thus::

"Dearly beloved, forasmuch as our duty is, to render to Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, most hearty thanks, for that he hath given his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance;" as it is declared unto us, as well by God's Word, as by the Holy Sacraments of his Blessed Body and Blood, &c. Lo, Christ is in this Sacrament given to us, to be our spiritual food. In which regard also, this Sacrament is, in the same Exhortation, called a godly and "heavenly feast;" whereto that we "may come holy and clean," we must "search and examine our own consciences," not our chops

* These words are gathered, not from the Second, but the First Exhortation before the Communion. EDITOR.

and maws that we may come," and be received as worthy partakers," of such a Heavenly Table.

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But that in the following Exhortation is yet more pregnant, that we should "diligently try and examine" our faith, before we presume to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. For, as the benefit is great, if, with a true penitent heart and lively faith, we receive that Holy Sacrament, (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; then we dwell in Christ, and he in us; we be one with Christ, and Christ with us :) so is the danger great, if we receive the same unworthily." What terms can be more express? It is Bread and Wine, which we come to receive: that bread and that wine is Sacramental. It is our Heart, wherewith we receive that sacrament: it is our Faith, whereby we worthily receive. This receipt and manducation of the flesh of Christ is spiritually done; and, by this spiritual receipt of him, we are made one with him, and he with us. By virtue then, of the worthy receipt of this Sacramental Bread and Wine, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ spiritually; and there grows, hereby, a reciprocal union betwixt Christ and us. Neither is he otherwise one with us, than we are one with him; which can be no otherwise, than by the power of his institution, and of our faith.

And, that no man may doubt what the drift and purpose of our Blessed Saviour was, in the institution and recommendation of this Blessed Sacrament to his Church, it follows in that passage: "And, to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us; and the innumerable benefits, which, by his precious blood-shedding, he hath obtained to us; he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love, and continual remembrances of his death to our great and endless comfort." If, therefore, we shall look upon and take these Sacred Elements as the pledges of our Saviour's love to us, and remembrances of his death for us, we shall not need, neither indeed can we require, by the judgment of our Church, to set any other value on them.

But, withal, that we may not slightly conceive of those mysteries, as if they had no further worth than they do outwardly show, we are taught, in that prayer, which the Minister, kneeling down at God's Board, is appointed to make, in the name of all the communicants before the consecration, That, while we do duly receive those Blessed Elements we do, in the same act, by the power of our faith, eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ: so effectual and inseparable is the sacramental union of the signs thus instituted by our Blessed Lord and Saviour, with the thing thereby signified. For thus is he prescribed to pray: "Grant us, therefore, Gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood; and that we may ever dwell in him, and he in us :" implying, that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine, as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ: now the

soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood, but by the power of that grace of faith, which appropriates it.

But, that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united, so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion, that, which followeth in the Consecratory Prayer, is most evident: "Hear us, O Merciful Father, we beseech thee; and grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most Blessed Body and Blood: who, in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread; and, when he had given thanks, he brake it and gave it to his disciples, saying; Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me." What more can be said? What come we to receive outwardly? the creatures of Bread and Wine. To what use? in remembrance of Christ's death and passion. What do we, the while, receive inwardly? we are thereby made partakers of his most Blessed Body and Blood. By what means doth this come about? by virtue of our Saviour's holy institution. Still, it is bread and wine, in respect of the nature and essence of it; but so, that, in the spiritual use of it, it conveys to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ: bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand, and Christ is tendered to my soul.

Which yet is more fully, if possibly it may be, expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant. "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life;" and, "Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thansgiving, &c." No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous. So do we, in remembrance of Christ's death, take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths, as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith. And what is this feeding upon Christ, but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls? Which is, as the prayer next following expresses it, then do we feed on Christ, when by the blessed "merits and death" of our Blessed Saviour, "and through faith in his blood," we do "obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion," and are "fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction."

Or, if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast, and the nourishment thereby received, the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words: "We most heartily thank thee, for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us, which have duly received these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards us, and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body, which is the blessed company of all faithful people; and be also heirs

through hope of thy everlasting kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy Dear Son."

This, then, is to feed upon Christ. Lo, the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual, while the elements be bodily and sensible.

Which the allowed Homilies of the Church also have laboured, in most significant terms, to set forth.

"Thou must carefully search and know," saith the First Sermon concerning the Sacrament (Tome 2.), "what dignities are provided for thy soul: whither thou art come, not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption, but thy inward man to immortality and life; nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest, but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth. For this table is not, saith Chrysostom, for chattering jays; but for eagles, who fly thither where the dead body lieth."

And, afterwards, to omit some other passages, most pregnantly thus: "It is well known, the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food, the nourishment of our soul, a heavenly refection, and not earthly; an invisible meat, and not bodily; a ghostly substance, and not carnal: so that, to think without faith we may enjoy the eating and drinking thereof, or that that is the fruition of it, is but to dream a gross carnal feeding, basely abjecting and binding ourselves to the elements and creatures; whereas, by the advice of the Council of Nice, we ought to lift up our minds by faith, and, leaving these inferior and earthly things, there seek it where the Sun of Righteousness ever shineth. Take this lesson, O thou that art desirous of this table, of Emissenus, a godly Father, That, when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats, thou look up with faith upon the holy Body and Blood of thy God, thou marvel with reverence, thou touch it with the mind, thou receive it with the hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with the inward man." Thus that Homily, in the voice of the Church of England.

Who now shall make doubt, to say, that, in the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner: so as nothing is objected to our senses, but the elements; nothing, but Christ, to our faith? and, therefore, that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot, as those, that must tread in the midst, betwixt profaneness and superstition: not affixing a Deity upon the elements, on the one side; nor, on the other, slighting them with a common regard: not adoring the creatures; nor basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God, whom they do really exhibit to us?

Let us not, then, think it any boldness, either to enquire or to determine of the Manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament; and confidently to say, that his body is locally in heaven, spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon earth.

True it is, that, in our Saviour's speech, John vi., to believe in Christ, is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, even besides and

out of the act of this Eucharistical Supper; so as, whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith, makes a private meal of his Saviour: but the Holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ; for now, over and above our spiritual eating of him, we do here eat him Sacramentally also: every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ; but here, by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviour's institution hath made betwixt the sign and the thing signified, the faithful communicant doth partake of Christ in a more peculiar manner: now, his very senses help to nourish his soul; and, by his eyes, his hands, his taste, Christ is spiritually conveyed into his heart, to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation.

But, to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point, let that serve for the upshot of all, which is expressly set down in the vth. Rubric in the end of the Communion, set forth as the judgment of the Church of England, both in King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's time, though lately, upon negligence, omitted in the impression: in these words; "Lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare, That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received, or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For, as concerning the Sacramental Bread and Wine, they remain still in their very Natural Substances; and therefore may not be adored, for that were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians: and, as concerning the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven, and not here; for it is against the truth of Christ's Natural Body to be in more places than one, at one time, &c."

Thus, the Church of England, having plainly explicated herself, hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth. Neither is she any changeling in her judgment, however some unsteady minds may vary in their conceits. Away, then, with those nice scruplers, who, for some further ends, have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense, with a non licet inquirere de modo: and conclude we, resolutely, that there is no truth in Divinity more clear, than this of Christ's gracious exhibition, and our faithful re ception of him in this Blessed Sacrament.

Babes, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

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