signs, he performeth also in deed, and delivereth it unto us; and that he as surely maketh them that believe in him, partakers of his body and blood, as they surely know that they have received the bread and wine with their mouth and stomach.

Mast. Sith we be in the earth, and Christ's body in heaven, how can that be that thou sayest?

Scho. We must lift our souls and hearts from earth, and raise them up by faith to heaven, where Christ is.

Mast. Sayest thou then the mean to receive the body and blood of Christ standeth upon faith?

Scho. Yea. For when we believe that Christ died to deliver us from death, and that he rose again to procure us life, we are partakers of the redemption purchased by his death, and of his life, and all other his good things; and with the same conjoining wherewith the head and members are knit together, he coupleth us to himself by secret and marvellous virtue of his Spirit, even so that we be members of his body, and be of his flesh and bones, and do grow into one hody with him.

Mast. Dost thou then, that this conjoining may be made, imagine the bread and wine to be changed into the substance of the flesh and body of Christ?

Scho. There is no need to invent any such change. For both the Holy Scriptures, and the

his body, not to offer it. As for the prerogative of offering for sins, it pertaineth to Christ alone, as to him which is the eternal Priest, which also when he died upon the cross, once made that only and everlasting sacrifice for our salvation, and fully performed the same for ever. For us there is nothing left to do but to take the use and benefit of that eternal sacrifice bequeathed us by the Lord himself, which we chiefly do in the Lord's Supper.

Mast. Then I perceive the holy Supper sendeth us to the death of Christ, and to his sacrifice once done upon the cross, by which alone God is appeased toward us.

Scho. It is most true. For by bread and wine, the signs, is assured unto us, that as the body of Christ was once offered a sacrifice for us to reconcile us to favour with God, and his blood once shed, to wash away the spots of our sins, so now also in his holy Supper both are given to the faithful, that we surely know that the reconciliation of favour pertaineth to us, and may take and receive the fruit of the redemption purchased by his death.

Mast. Are then the only faithful fed with Christ's body and blood?

Scho. They only. For to whom he communicateth his body, to them, as I said, he communicateth also everlasting life.

Mast. Why dost thou not grant that the body

Mast. And sayest thou that there be no less strait bands of conjoining in the Supper?

Scho. In the Lord's Supper, both that communicating which I spake of, is confirmed unto us, and is also increased, for that each man is both by the words and mysteries of God ascertained that the same belongeth to himself, and that Christ is by a certain peculiar manner given to him, that he may most fully and with most near conjunction enjoy him, insomuch that not only our souls are nourished with his holy body and blood as with their proper food; but also our our bodies, for that they partake of the Sacraments of eternal life, have, as it were by a pledge given them, a certain hope assured them of resurrection and immortality, that at length Christ abiding in us, and we again abiding in Christ, we also, by Christ abiding in us, may obtain not only everlasting life, but also the glory which his Father gave him. In a sum I say thus: as I imagine not any gross joining, so I affirm that same secret and marvellous communicating of Christ's body in his Supper to be most near and strait, most assured, most true, and altogether most high and perfect.

Mast. Of this thou hast said of the Lord's Supper, meseems I may gather, that the same was not ordained to this end, that Christ's body should be offered in sacrifice to God the Father for sins.

Scho. It is not so offered. For he, when he did institute his Supper, commanded us to eat

his body, not to offer it. As for the prerogative of offering for sins, it pertaineth to Christ alone, as to him which is the eternal Priest, which also when he died upon the cross, once made that only and everlasting sacrifice for our salvation, and fully performed the same for ever. For us there is nothing left to do but to take the use and benefit of that eternal sacrifice bequeathed us by the Lord himself, which we chiefly do in the Lord's Supper.

Mast. Then I perceive the holy Supper sendeth us to the death of Christ, and to his sacrifice once done upon the cross, by which alone God is appeased toward us. Scho. It is most true. For by bread and wine, the signs, is assured unto us, that as the body of Christ was once offered a sacrifice for us to reconcile us to favour with God, and his blood once shed, to wash away the spots of our sins, so now also in his holy Supper both are given to the faithful, that we surely know that the reconciliation of favour pertaineth to us, and may take and receive the fruit of the redemption purchased by his death.

Mast. Are then the only faithful fed with Christ's body and blood?

Scho. They only. For to whom he communicateth his body, to them, as I said, he communicateth also everlasting life.

Mast. Why dost thou not grant that the body

cup, or that the bread and wine are changed into the substance of his body and blood?

Scho. Because that were to bring in doubt the truth of Christ's body, to do dishonour to Christ himself, and to fill them with abhorring that receive the Sacrament, if we should imagine his body either to be enclosed in so narrow a room, or to be in many places at once, or his flesh to be chewed in our mouth with our teeth, and to be bitten small, and eaten as other meat.

Mast. Why then is the communicating of the Sacrament damnable to the wicked, if there be no such change made?

Scho. Because they come to the holy and divine mysteries with hypocrisy and counterfeiting, and do wickedly profane them, to the great injury and dishonour of the Lord himself that ordained them.

Mast. Declare then what is our duty, that we may come rightly to the Lord's Supper.

Scho. Even the same that we are taught in the Holy Scriptures, namely, to examine ourselves, whether we be true members of Christ.

REFORMATIO LEGUM, &c.

What the Eucharist is, and what are its effects. Chap. 4.