confound the two natures in Christ, or to deny Christ's human nature, which is the self-same that St. John saith, to deny Christ to be come in the flesh. And this whoso' doth, by the testimony of St. John, is an Antichrist in his so doing, whatsoever otherwise he do prate. Read St. Augustine, in his Epistle to Dardanus, and his Thirty-first Treatise on St. John, and easily you shall see, that Christ's body must needs be in one place, but his truth is in all places." Bishop Hooper (martyr) writes-" Now in this time, to believe that the priest can make God, or to believe that which was not God yesterday can be both God and man to-day, and so to honour that which was but very bread yesterday, for the true God which made both heaven and earth, and all that be in them, and for the body and soul of Christ which suffered for our redemption, and took for us our sins upon the cross, is very idolatry, and to be committed of no Christian man; for the pain of it, without repentance, is everlasting dam nation." The following passages from the Homily, concerning the sacrament, will form a proper conclusion to this chapter. "That faith is a necessary instrument in all these holy ceremonies, we may thus assure ourselves, 'for that,' as St. Paul saith, without faith it is impossible to please God.' (Heb. xi. 6.) When a great number of the Israelites were overthrown in the wilderness, Moses, Aaron, and Phineas did eat manna, and pleased God, for that they understood, saith St. Augustine, the visible meat spiritually. Spiritually they hungered it, spiritually they tasted it, that they might be spiritually satisfied. And, truly, as the bodily meat cannot feed the outward man, unless it be let into a stomach to be digested, which is healthful and sound, no more can the inward man be fed, except his meat be received into his soul and heart, sound and whole in faith. It is well known that 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 that 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 objecting and binding ourselves to the elements and creatures. Whereas, by the advice of the Council of Nicene, 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. Wherefore let us prove and try ourselves unfeigned, without flattering ourselves whether we be plants of the fruitful olive, living branches of the true vine, members indeed of Christ's mystical body, whether God hath purified our hearts by faith, to the sincere acknowledging of his gospel, and embracing of his mercies in Christ Jesus, so that at this his table we receive not only the outward sacrament, but the spiritual thing also; not the figure, but the truth; not the shadow only, but the body; not to death, but to life; not to destruction, but to salvation; which God grant us to do through the merits of our Lord and Saviour; to whom be all honour and glory for ever. Amen." * *See Appendix C. 192 CHAPTER IV. COMMUNION IN ONE KIND-SACRIFICE OF THE MASS-ADORATION OF THE HOST. Church of Rome. "I profess that under one kind only is received the whole and entire Christ, and the true sacrament. "I further profess that in the mass is offered unto God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead." -Trent Profession, Art. v. vi. Church of England. "The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people : for both the parts of the Lord's sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike. "The offering of Christ once made, is that perfect redemp tion, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual: and there is no other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits. "The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped."-Art. xxviii. XXX. xxxi. THE particular errors and corruptions of the church of Rome referred to above, have all grown out of the doctrine of transubstantiation. When it came to be an established article of faith in the church of Rome, that the bread and wine in the Eucharist, on the words of consecration being pronounced, were converted into the real body and blood, soul and divinity, of the Saviour, reasons were easily found for communion in one kind, for the sacrifice of the mass, and the adoration of the host. Having shown that the notion of transubstantiation is contrary to sacred Scripture--to the faith of the church for the first ten centuries-and to sound reason, it will not be necessary to occupy much room in disproving those errors which are now to be particularly noticed. The unscriptural practice of "communion in one kind," is the consequence of the absurd notion of transubstantiation. As it is pretended by the church of Rome, that the whole Christ is contained under each species or element in the sacrament of the Eucharist, a plausible reason is assigned for withholding the cup from the laity. The same reason, however, would equally justify the withholding the cup from the clergy, who are nevertheless in the habit of receiving it. "Communion in one kind" was first authoritatively determined as an article of the Romish faith by the Council of Constance, which met November 16th, 1414. This Council, though ad |