FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON, TEGG AND CO., DUBLIN ; R. GRIFFIN AND CO., GLASGOW. ALSO, J. AND S. A. TEGG, SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OF THE LAWS OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. BOOK V. CONTINUED. Ch. lxvii. Sacrament Body and Christ. LXVII. THE grace which we have by the holy Eucharist Book V. doth not begin, but continue, life. No man therefore receiveth this sacrament before baptism, because no dead thing is ca- Of the pable of nourishment. That which groweth must of necessity of the first live. If our bodies did not daily waste, food to restore Blood of them were a thing superfluous. And it may be that the grace of baptism would serve to eternal life, were it not that the state of our spiritual being is daily so much hindered and impaired after baptism. In that life therefore, where neither body nor soul can decay, our souls shall as little require this sacrament, as our bodies corporal nourishment. But as long as the days of our warfare last, during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in grace, the words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forcible, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his John vi. blood, ye have no life in you." Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end, they which by baptism have laid the foundation, and attained the first beginning of a new life, have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them. Such as will live the life of God, must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man; because this is a part of that diet, which if we want we cannot live. Whereas therefore in our infancy we are incorporated into Christ, and by baptism receive the grace of his Spirit 53. |