he, offereth unto God the Sacrifice of praise in the Body of Christ, ever since the fulfilling of that in Ps. 1. The God of gods hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising to the going down thereof.'

"Lastly, that the representation of the Body and Blood of Christ in this Christian Service was intended and used as a rite whereby to find grace and favour with God, when the Church addressed herself unto Him (which is that I undertook to prove), is apparent by a saying of Origen, Hom. 13 in Levit., where, treating of the shew-bread, which was continually set before the Lord with incense, for a memorial of the children of Israel, that is, to put God in mind of them, he makes it in this respect to have been a lively figure of the Christian's Eucharist; for, saith he, "That is the only commemoration which renders God propitious to men.'"

III. The next statement is: "and by Adoration of Christ really present on the altar under form of bread and wine."

This statement involves two points, which in my own mind are distinct: 1. The real Presence of our Lord; 2. The Adoration of Christ Present in the Holy Eucharist.

1. Of the Real Presence of our Lord I have spoken so much at length, and what I wrote was so widely circulated', that I need hardly repeat here

The Holy Eucharist a Comfort to the Penitent, and App.

what I have said. I believe simply the teaching of our Church, in the Catechism, the Articles, and the Eucharistic Service. I believe that "the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." I believe that "then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood; we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us." I believe that we "so eat the Flesh of God's dear Son Jesus Christ, and drink His Blood, that our sinful bodies are made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through His most precious Blood;" that we may "evermore dwell in Him, and He in us." I believe that "the Body and Blood of Christ which were given and shed for us [not assuredly His absent Body and Blood, nor a figure only of His Body and Blood] "preserve our Bodies and Souls unto everlasting life." I believe that "the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten," [given by the Priest and taken by the people] "only after a spiritual and heavenly manner" [i. e, not in any carnal, or physical, or earthly manner, but spiritually, sacramentally, truly, and ineffably]. And I believe that "the means whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith." For assuredly Faith only perceives, faith only receives His Presence, or Himself; as St. Augustine says, "Believe, and thou hast eaten "." The word "spi

2

Hom. 25 in S. Joh. § 12. This statement has been excepted against in recent controversy, but is found in later writers also.

ritually," against which some have excepted, as though it were opposed to "really," is the very word of St. Augustine: "Eat Life, drink Life; thou wilt have life; yet is Life entire. But then will this be, i. e. the Body and Blood of Christ will be life to each, if what in the Sacrament is visibly taken, in very truth is spiritually eaten, is spiritually drunk." "We too at this day do receive visible food; but the Sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the Sacrament another. How many receive from the altar and die, yea, by receiving, die! Whence the Apostle saith, Eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.' It was not that the sop of the Lord was poison to Judas. And yet he received; and when he received, the enemy entered into him: not that he received an evil thing, but that he being evil

Thus Alex. Alensis:-"To complete feeding, there is required, a threefold union, by nature, knowledge, charity. Union by nature [i. e. having the same nature as our Incarnate Lord] renders man capable thereof; union by love completes that aptness as relates to spiritual feeding; union by knowledge, as to sacramental. Wherefore it must be said, that as he who hath not charity, in no wise feedeth spiritually; so he who in no wise hath knowledge, i. e. of faith, doth not sacramentally. Wherefore not every wickedness taketh away the feeding sacramentally, but that which is of defect of faith. Defect of faith, I mean, which is complete, whether with love or without it. Since then all the good have love, but all the bad are not wholly without faith, therefore it does not follow, although all the good eat spiritually, that all the bad [? do not] eat sacramentally." iv. qu. xi. memb. 2. art. 2. § 2.

3 Hom. in N. T. Serm. 131.

Tract. 26 in S. Joh. § 11.

did in evil wise receive what was good. Look to it, then, brethren, eat ye spiritually the heavenly bread, bring innocence to the altar."

And this, which is called either the substance (res) or the virtue (virtus) of the Sacrament, is explained to be the Body of Christ. "The sacrifice of the Church consists of two things, the visible form of the elements, and the invisible Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Sacrament and the substance of the Sacrament, that is, the Body of Christ. The sacrifice of the Church consists of the sacrament and the substance (re) of the Sacrament, i.e. the Body of Christ. There is, then, the Sacrament and the substance of the Sacrament, i.e. the Body of Christ."

This very statement is the basis of the distinction between "eating sacramentally" and "eating spiritually," i. e. the wicked, who receive "the sacrament” only, are said to eat sacramentally only; the good, who receive "the substance of the sacrament" also, eat spiritually also.

St. Jerome again uses the same language: "The Blood and Flesh of Christ are understood in a twofold way either that spiritual and Divine, of which He Himself said, 'My flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is Drink indeed; and Unless ye eat the

5

Lanfranc. c. Berengar. quoted Decr. de consecr. d. 2. c. 48 as St. Augustine's. The same distinction between the "Sacramentum " and the " res et virtus Sacramenti," occurs in a prayer of Aquinas, received into the Præparatio ad Missam in the Roman Missal and Breviary.

In Eph. 1. 7, quoted de consecr. ii. 49.

Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you:' or that Flesh and Blood, which was crucified and shed by the soldier's lance."

But again, on this subject also, the statement of Mr. Palmer so fully expresses my own belief, and that, mostly in words supported by our formularies, that, with the exception of one inference, I would willingly once more adopt it. The single inference is (as I understand it), that, in the case "of the wicked, who are totally devoid of true and living faith," God withdraws the Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ. This seems to resemble the opinion mentioned by Aquinas as held by some, that "the Body of Christ is not in real truth received by sinners, for that the Body of Christ ceased to be present under the elements, so soon as touched by the sinner's lips."

This is a great mystery, and, as a mystery, I should prefer to leave it, as I have never spoken of it. The heading of our Article is, "Of the wicked which eat not the Body of Christ;" in the body of the Article it is said that they "are in no wise partakers of Christ." Certainly, one who partakes unworthily, and to his condemnation, cannot be "partaker of Christ." Else they would "dwell in Christ and Christ in them, be one with Christ and Christ with them." And then, our Lord says, they would have everlasting life. But Christ dwelleth not in the soul in which Satan dwelleth. Nor yet can the Body and Blood of Christ be present without Him, for where His Body is, there He is. It is the very test of the