by some external sign; that holy man, for the sake of order and discipline, appointed that day for all the Christians at Rome to make a public confession of their faith by a participation of the Lord's supper. The regulation of Zepherinus was good in itself, but was grossly perverted by his successors, when they made a certain law that there should be one communion in a year; the consequence of which has been, that almost all men, when they have communicated once, resign themselves to lethargic repose, as if they had fairly excused themselves for all the rest of the year. A very different practice ought to have been pursued. At least once in every week the table of the Lord ought to have been spread before each congregation of Christians, and the promises to have been declared for their spiritual nourishment; no person ought to have been compelled to partake, but all ought to have been exhorted and stimulated, and those who were negligent, to have been reproved. Then all, like persons famished, would have assembled in crowds to such a banquet. I have sufficient reason for complaining that it was the artifice of the devil that introduced this custom, which, by prescribing one day in a year, renders men slothful and careless all the rest of the time. We see that this abuse had already begun to prevail in the time of Chrysostom, but we see at the same time how greatly it displeased him. For in the place which I have just quoted, he severely complains of a great inequality in this matter, that oftentimes people would not come to the sacrament all the rest of the year, notwithstanding they were prepared, but that they would come at Easter even without preparation. Then he exclaims: "O custom! O presumption! In vain then is the daily oblation; in vain do we stand at the altar. There is no one to partake with us." So far is such a practice from being sanctioned by the authority of Chrysostom.

XLVII. From the same source proceeded another regulation, which has robbed or deprived the principal part of the people of God of one half of the sacred supper; I mean, the symbol of the blood, which has been interdicted to the laity and the profane, for by these titles they distinguish the Lord's heritage, and has become the peculiar privilege of the few who have received ecclesiastical unction and tonsure. The ordi

nance of the eternal God is, "Drink ye all of it;" which man has repealed and abrogated by a new and contrary law, ordaining that all shall not drink of it. And these legislators, that they may not appear to resist their God without reason, plead the dangers which might result if this sacred cup were indiscriminately presented to all; as though those dangers had not been foreseen and considered by the eternal wisdom of God. In the next place, they argue with great subtilty, that one is sufficient for both. For, if it be the body, they say, it is the whole of Christ, who cannot now be separated from his body. The body, therefore, contains the blood. See how human reason is at variance with God, when it has once been left to its own vagaries. Exhibiting the bread, our Lord says, "This is my body;" exhibiting the cup, he says, "This is my blood." The audacity of human reason contradicts this, and affirms that the bread is the blood, and that the wine is the body; as if the Lord had distinguished his body from his blood, both by words and by signs, without any cause, and as if it had ever been heard that the body or blood of Christ was called God and man. Certainly if he had intended to designate his whole person, he might have said "It is I," as the Scripture tells us he did on other occasions: and not, "This is my body; this is my blood." But, with a view to aid the weakness of our faith, he exhibits the bread and the cup separately, to teach us that he is sufficient for drink as well as for food. Now, let one of these parts be taken away, and we shall find only half of our nourishment in him. Though it were true, then, as they pretend, that the blood is in the bread, and the body in the cup, yet they defraud the souls of the faithful of that confirmation which Christ has delivered as necessary for them. Therefore, leaving their subtilties, let us hold fast the benefit which arises from the double pledge which Christ has ordained.

XLVIII. I am aware of the cavils advanced on this subject by the ministers of Satan, who are accustomed to treat the Scripture with contempt. In the first place, they plead, that a simple act affords no sufficient ground from which to deduce a rule of perpetual obligation on the observance of the Church. But it is false to call it a simple act; for Christ not only gave

the cup to his apostles, but also commanded them to do the same in time to come. For it is the language of command, "Drink ye all of it." And Paul mentions its having been practised in such a way as fully implies its being a positive ordinance. The second subterfuge is, that Christ admitted none but the apostles to a participation of this Supper, whom he had already chosen and admitted into the order of sacrificing priests. But I would wish them to give me answers to five questions, from which they will not be able to escape, but their misrepresentations will be easily refuted. First; By what oracle have they obtained this solution, so inconsistent with the word of God? The Scripture mentions twelve who sat down with Jesus; but it does not obscure the dignity of Christ so as to call them sacrificing priests; a name which I shall notice in the proper place. Though he then gave the sacrament to the twelve, yet he commanded that they should do the same; that is, that they should distribute it among them in a similar manner. Secondly; why, in that purer period, for almost a thousand years after the apostles, were all, without exception, admitted to the participation of both symbols? Was the ancient church ignorant what guests Christ had admitted to his supper? Any hesitation or evasion would betray the most consummate impudence. Ecclesiastical histories and works of the Fathers are still extant, which furnish clear testimonies of this fact. Tertullian says; "The flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ, that the soul may be nourished by God." Ambrose said to Theodosius; "With such hands how will you receive the sacred body of the Lord? With what audacity will you drink his sacred blood?" Jerome says; "The priests consecrate the eucharist, and distribute the Lord's blood to the people." Chrysostom says; "It is not as it was under the ancient law, when the priest ate one part, and the people another; but to all is presented one body, and one cup. Every thing in the eucharist is common to the priest and to the people." And the same is attested in various places by Augustine,

XLIX. But why do I dispute about a thing that is so evident? Let any one read all the Greek and Latin Fathers, and he will find them abound with such testimonies. Nor did this

custom fall into disuse while a particle of purity remained in the Church. Gregory, who may be justly called the last bishop of Rome, shews that it was observed in his time. He says: "You have now learned what the blood of the Lamb is, not by hearing, but by drinking. His blood is drunk by the faithful." And it even continued for four hundred years after his death, notwithstanding the universal degeneracy which had taken place. Nor was it considered merely as a custom but as an inviolable law. For the divine institution was then reverenced, and no doubt was entertained of the criminality of separating things which the Lord had united. For Gelasius, bishop of Rome, speaks in the following manner; "We have understood that some, only receiving the Lord's body, abstain from the cup: who, as they appear to be enslaved by an unaccountable superstition, should, without doubt, either receive the sacrament entire, or entirely abstain from it. For no division of this mystery can be made without great sacrilege." Attention was paid to those reasons of Cyprian, which surely ought to be sufficient to influence a Christian mind. He says: "How do we teach or stimulate them to shed their blood in the confession of Christ, if we refuse his blood to them who are about to engage in the conflict? Or how do we prepare them for the cup of martyrdom, if we do not first admit them, by the right of communion, to drink the cup of the Lord in the Church?" The canonists restrict the decree of Gelasius to the priests, but this is too puerile a cavil to need any refutation.

L. Thirdly; why did Christ, when he presented the bread, simply say, "Take, eat;" but when he presented the cup, "Drink ye all of it;" as if he expressly intended to guard against the subtilty of Satan? Fourthly; If, as our adversaries pretend, our Lord admitted to his supper none but sacrificing priests, what man can be found so presumptuous as to invite to a participation of it strangers whom the Lord has excluded? and to a participation of that gift over which they could have no power, without any command from him who alone could give it? And with what confidence do they now take upon them to distribute to the people the symbol of the body of Christ, if they have neither the command nor example of the Lord? Fifthly; Did Paul affirm what was false,

when he said to the Corinthians, "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you?" (r) For he afterwards declares what he had delivered, which was, that all, without any distinction, should communicate in both symbols. If Paul had "received of the Lord," that all were to be admitted without any distinction; let them consider from whom they have received, who exclude almost all the people of God: for they cannot now pretend their doctrine to have originated from God, with whom is "not yea and nay." (s) And yet they dare to shelter such abominations under the name of the Church, and to defend them under that pretext; as if the Church could consist of those antichrists, who so easily trample under foot, mutilate and abolish the doctrine and institutions of Christ; or as if the apostolic Church, in which true religion displayed all its influence, were not the true Church.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Papal Mass not only a sacrilegious Profanation of the Lord's Supper, but a total Annihilation of it.

WITH these, and similar inventions, Satan has endeavoured to obscure, corrupt, and adulterate the sacred supper of Christ, that, at least, its purity might not be preserved in the Church. But the perfection of the dreadful abomination was his establishment of a sign, by which it might be not only obscured and perverted, but altogether obliterated and abolished, so as to disappear from the view, and to depart from the remembrance of men. I refer to that most pestilent error, with which he has blinded almost the whole world, persuading it to believe that the mass is a sacrifice and oblation to procure the remission of sins. How this dogma was at first understood by the sounder schoolmen, who did not fall into all the absurdities of their successors, I shall not stay to inquire, but shall take leave of them and their thorny subtilties; which, however (s) 2 Cor. i. 18.

(†) 1 Cor. xi. 23.