only spiritually, and not sacramentally also and really let him be accursed."

[Note-According to the foregoing doctrine, not "wicked" men only, but even mice and other animals may be "partakers of Christ;" for by the act of consecration the bread becomes immediately the body of Christ, and so continues whilst any consecrated particle of it remains, by whomsoever or whatsoever it be at last devoured.]

only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith."

Of the wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper. The wicked, and such as be void of a lively Faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith) the Saciament of the Body and Blood of Christ: yet in nowise are they partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing."

Thus again an essential difference appears, as to the manner in which this sacrament should be used: for whereas the Church of Rome, believing the bread and wine to be changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, esteems it a fit object of the highest religious worship, elevating it in the presence of her assembled people, carrying it about in solemn procession, offering it to the gaze and admiration of the multitude, and adoring it, as she would Christ himself, according to the 6th canon of the thirteenth Session of the Council of Trent; the Church of England, according to her 25th and 28th Articles, as likewise to her protestation at the end of her Communion service, condemns such practices as inconsistent with the ordinance of Christ, and in particular describes such adoration as "idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians."

ADORATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF

THE EUCHARIST, according to the Church of Rome.

"If any one shall say, that in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist

ADORATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF
THE LORD'S SUPPER, according
to the Church of England.
"The Sacraments were not or-
dained of Christ to be gazed upon,

Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored even with the external worship of latria, which is due to the true God, and therefore that it is not to be vene. rated with peculiar festive celebration; nor to be solemnly carried about in procession, according to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy Church; or not to be publickly presented to the people, to be adored by them; and that its adorers are idolaters: let him be accursed."

[Note. Notwithstanding the anathema of the Romish Church, the Fathers of the reformed Church of England called the "adoration" of the Sacramental Bread and Wine by a name, which they believed" and no one could judge better than they, that it deserved: namely, that of idolatry. Her well-merited character for moderation is not injured by her having spoken, on lawful occasions, concerning the Church of Rome, what she has believed to be the truth: and I trust that her ministers and other members, when the occasion calls upon them in an honest conscience to deliver their sentiments on the same subject, may follow her example, and adopt her language, and be blameless.]

or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them."

"The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about. lifted up, or worshipped."

same

"Whereas it is ordained in this office for the administration of the Lord's Supper, that the Communicants should receive the kneeling.. it is hereby declared, That thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be done,

either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received, or unto any Corporeal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored, (for that were Idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians:) and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one."

of the

Thus again, with respect to the "reserving sacramental bread and wine, or, as the Church of Rome expresses it, "The true Body of our Lord which remains in the consecrated hosts or particles, which are reserved or left after the communion ;" whilst the Roman Church reserves it for conveyance to the sick according to the pompous ceremonial of her religion, the Anglican Church pronounces such reservation of it to be a departure from

Christ's ordinance, and directs that it be consumed immediately on the spot: as we find on the one hand in the seventh canon of the last-mentioned Session of the Council of Trent; and on the other in the Church of England's 28th Article as already cited, and in her Rubrick after the Communion.

Thus again, a striking difference exists, as to the preparation, respectively required by the two Churches in those who are to receive the holy Sacrament: as will appear from a perusal of the 11th canon of the thirteenth Session of the Tridentine Council; and of the exhortation, as preparatory to the administration, prescribed by the Church of England.

PREPARATION for the Sacrament of the Eucharist, according to the Church of Rome.

"If any one shall say, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the Sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; let him be accursed. And, lest so great a Sacrament should be taken unworthily, and thus to death and condemnation,

PREPARATION for the Sacrament of

the Lord's Supper, according to the Church of England.

"The way and means thereto is, First, to examine your lives and conversations by the rule of God's commandments, and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sin

this holy Synod decrees and declares, that by those, who are burdened by a consciousness of mortal sin, however they may think themselves to be contrite, Sacramental Confession, if a Confessor can be found, is of necessity to be used beforehand. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or pertinaciously assert the contrary, or even to defend it in a publick dis putation let him be thereupon actually excommunicated."

fulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God with full purpose of amendment of life, &c."

"And because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy communion but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore, if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel; let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's word, and open his grief."

Concerning these requisites, it is hardly necessary to observe upon the essential difference, in the first place, between confession to a priest and to Almighty God; and then upon the difference between the injunction which renders confession to a priest absolutely necessary, and the exhortation which invites the scrupulous penitent voluntarily to seek spiritual comfort and counsel from a minister of God's word.

Thus again, with respect to one constituent of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which I shall next submit, a plain difference exists between the two Churches: a difference, as important as it is plain, inasmuch as the Church of Rome undergoes the grievous charge of setting at nought the commandment of our Lord, and mutilating his ordinance. The reader will understand me as alluding to the denial of the cup to the laity; which the Council of Trent admits and justifies in the three first canons of the twenty-first Session, and which the Church of England thus controverts and condemns in her 30th Article.

COMMUNION IN BOTH KINDS, according to the Church COMMUNION

of Rome.

"Canon 1. If any one shall say, that by the commandment of God, or as necessary to salvation, all and each of the faithful of Christ ought to receive both kinds of the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist: let him be accursed.

2. If any one shall say, that the holy Catholick Church has not been induced by just causes and reasons, to communicate to the Laity, and even to the Clergy, who do not officiate, only the kind of bread; or that she has erred in so doing: let him be accursed.

3. If any one shall deny, that whole and entire Christ, the fountain and author of all graces, is received under the one kind of bread, because, as some falsely assert, he is not there received according to Christ's own institution under both kinds : let him be accursed."

IN

BOTH KINDS, ac

cording to the Church of Eng

land.

There is another point of disagreement as to the administration of this sacrament, which distinguishes the two Churches, and in relation to which the Church of Rome maintains her own practice in the 9th canon of the twenty-second Session of the Tridentine Council, and the Church of England condemns it in her 23rd Article; not limiting her censure, however, to that particular service, but extending it to the liturgical services in general of the Romish Church; which, as the reader probably is aware, celebrates the whole of her liturgy in Latin, whatever be the vernacular language of the country where it is celebrated: a provision fundamentally affecting the use and purposes of prayer.