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give, and the communicant to receive the sacrifice; as well as in respect of the former part, they were said to offer the same unto the Lord. For they did not distinguish the sacrifice from the sacrament, as the Romanists do nowa-days: but used the name of sacrifice indifferently, both of that which was offered unto God, and of that which was given to and received by the communicant. Therefore we read of offering the sacrifice to God: as in that speech of Gallus to his scholar Magnoaldus, "My master Columbanus is accustomed to offer unto the Lord the sacrifice of salvation in brazen vessels." Of giving the sacrifice to man: as when it is said in one of the ancient synods of Ireland, that a2 bishop, by his testament, may bequeath a certain proportion of his goods for a legacy to the priest that giveth him the sacrifice; and of receiving the sacrifice from the hands of the minister; as in that sentence of the synod attributed unto St. Patrick, "He" who deserveth not to receive the sacrifice in his life, how can it help him after his death?" and in that gloss of Sedulius upon "Tarry one for another;" that is, saith he, "until you do receive the sacrifice." And in the British antiquities, where we read of Amon, a nobleman in Wales, father to Samson the saint of Dole in little Britain, that "being taken with a grievous sickness, he was admonished by his neighbours, that according to the usual manner he should receive the sacrifice of the communion." Whereby it doth appear, that the sacrifice of the elder times was not like unto the new mass of the Romanists, wherein the priest alone doth all; but unto

y Præceptor meus B. Columbanus in vasis æneis Domino solet sacrificium offerre salutis. Walafrid. Strab. Vit. Gall. lib. 1. cap. 19.

z Testamentum episcopi sive principis est; 10. scripuli sacerdoti danti sibi sacrificium. Synod. Hibern. in vet. lib. canonum Cottoniano, titulorum 66.

• Qui in vita sua non merebitur sacrificium accipere: quomodo post mortem illi potest adjuvare? Synod. Patris. cap. 12. MS.

b 1 Cor. cap. 11. ver. 33.

c Invicem expectate, id est, usque quo sacrificium accipiatis. Sedul. in 1 Cor. cap. 11.

d Gravi infirmitate depressus, a suis commonitus est vicinis, ut juxta morem susciperet sacrificium communionis. Ex vita S. Samsonis MS. in libro Landavensis Ecclesiæ vocat. Tilo.

our communion, where others also have free liberty given unto them to eat of the altar, as well as they that serve the altar.

Again, they that are communicants in the Romish sacrament, receive the eucharist in one kind only: the priest in offering of the sacrifice receiveth the same distinctly, both by way of meat and by way of drink; which they tell us "is chiefly done, for the integrity of the sacrifice and not of the sacrament." For in the sacrifice, they say, "the several elements be consecrated, not into Christ's whole person as it was born of the Virgin, or now is in heaven: but the bread into his body apart, as betrayed, broken, and given for us; the wine into his blood apart, as shed out of his body for remission of sins and dedication of the new Testament, which be conditions of his person, as he was in sacrifice and oblation." But our ancestors, in the use of their sacrament, received the eucharist in both kinds: not being so acute as to discern betwixt the things that belonged unto the integrity of the sacrifice and of the sacrament; because, in very truth, they took the one to be the other.

Thus Bede relateth, that one Hildmer, an officer of Egfrid king of Northumberland, entreated our Cuthbert "to send a priest that might minister the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood" unto his wife that then lay a dying; and Cuthbert himself, immediately before his own departure out of this life, received the communion of the Lord's body and blood; as Herefride abbot of the monastery of Lindisfarne, who was the man that at that time ministered the sacrament unto him, made report unto

e Hebr. cap. 13. ver. 10.

f Id fit potissimum ob sacrificii, non ob sacramenti integritatem. Bellarmin. de sacrament. eucharist. lib. 4. cap. 22. in fine.

Rhem. annotat. in Matth. cap. 26. ver. 26.

h Mittas presbyterum qui illam, priusquam moriatur, visitet; eique Dominici corporis et sanguinis sacramenta ministret. Bed. de vit. Cuthbert. pros. cap.

15.

Acceptis a me sacramentis salutaribus exitum suum, quem jam venisse cognovit, Dominici corporis et sanguinis communione munivit. Ibid. cap. 39.

the same Bede, who elsewhere also particularly noteth, that he then tasted of the cup.

Poculak degustat vitæ, Christique supinum
Sanguine munit iter.

Lest any man should think, that under the forms of bread alone he might be said to have been partaker of the body and blood of the Lord, by way of concomitance, which is a toy that was once dreamed of in those days. So that we need not to doubt, what is meant by that which we read in the book of the life of Furseus, which was written before the time of Bede, that "he' received the communion of the holy body and blood;" and that he was wished to admonish them pastors of the Church, that they should strengthen the souls of the faithful with the spiritual food of doctrine, and the participation of the holy body and blood; or of that which Cogitosus writeth in the life of St. Bridget, touching the place in the church of Kildare, whereunto" the abbatess with her maidens and widows used to resort," that they might enjoy the banquet of the body and blood of Jesus Christ," which was agreeable to the practice, not only of the nunneries founded beyond the seas according to the rule of Columbanus, where the virgins "received the body of the Lord, and sipped his blood," as appeareth by that which Jonas relateth of Domna, in the life of Burgundofora; but also of St. Bridget herself, who was the foundress of the monastery of Kildare; one of whose miracles is reported, even in the later legends, to have happened when she was about to drink out of the chalice, at the time of

k Bed. de vit. Cuthbert. carm. cap. 36.

Petivitque et accepit sacri corporis et sanguinis communionem. Author antiqu. vit. Fursæi.

m

Principes et doctores Ecclesiæ Christi, animas fidelium ad pœnitentiæ lamentum post culpas provocent; et eas spirituali pastu doctrinæ ac sacri corporis et sanguinis participatione solidas reddant. Ibid.

"Per alterum ostium abbatissa cum suis puellis et viduis fidelibus tantum iverat, (leg. intrat) ut convivio corporis et sanguinis fruantur Jesu Christi. Cogitos. vit. Brigid.

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Quædam ex his nomine Domna, cum jam corpus Domini accepisset, ac sanguinem libasset. Jon. vit. Burgundofor.

her receiving of the eucharist, which they that list to look after may find in the collections of Capgrave, Surius, and such like.

But, you will say, these testimonies that have been alleged, make not so much for us, in proving the use of the communion under both kinds, as they make against us, in confirming the opinion of transubstantiation: seeing they all specify the receiving, not of bread and wine, but of the body and blood of Christ. I answer, that forasmuch as Christ himself, at the first institution of his holy Supper, did say expressly, "This is my body," and, "This is my blood:" he deserveth not the name of a Christian that will question the truth of that saying, or refuse to speak in that language, which he hath heard his Lord and Master use before him. The question only is, in what sense, and after what manner these things must be conceived to be his body and blood. Of which there needed to be little question, if men would be pleased to take into their consideration these two things, which were never doubted of by the ancient, and have most evident ground in the context of the Gospel. First, that the subject of those sacramental propositions delivered by our Saviour (that is to say, the demonstrative particle THIS), can have reference to no other substance but that which he then held in his sacred hands, namely, bread and wine, which are of so different a nature from the body and blood of Christ, that the one cannot possibly in proper sense be said to be the other, as the light of common reason doth force the Romanists themselves to confess. Secondly, that in the predicate, or latter part of the same propositions there is not mention made only of Christ's body and blood; but of his body broken, and his blood shed: to shew that his body is to be considered here apart, not as it was born of the Virgin, or now is in heaven, but as it was broken and crucified for us; and his blood likewise apart, not as running in his veins, but as shed out of his body, which the Rhemists have told us to be "conditions of his person, as he was in sacrifice and oblation."

And lest we should imagine that his body were otherwise to be considered in the sacrament than in the sacrifice; in the one alive, as it is now in heaven, in the other dead, as it was offered upon the cross; the apostle putteth the matter out of doubt, that not only the minister in offering, but also the people in receiving, even "as often as they eat this bread, and drink this cup, do shew the Lord's death until he come." Our elders surely, that held the sacrifice to be given and received (for so we have heard themselves speak) as well as offered, did not consider otherwise of Christ in the sacrament, than he was in sacrifice and oblation. If here therefore, Christ's body be presented as broken and lifeless, and his blood as shed forth and severed from his body; and it be most certain, that there are no such things now really existent any where, as is confessed on all hands; then must it follow necessarily, that the bread and wine are not converted into these things really. The Rhemists indeed tell us, that when the Church doth offer and sacrifice Christ daily," he in mystery and sacrament dieth." Further than this they durst not go: for if they had said, he died really; they should thereby not only make themselves daily killers of Christ, but also directly cross that principle of the apostle, "Christ' being raised from the dead dyeth no more." If then the body of Christ in the administration of the eucharist be propounded as dead (as hath been shewed) and die it cannot really, but only in mystery and sacrament, how can it be thought to be contained under the outward elements, otherwise than in sacrament and mystery? and such as in times past were said to have received the sacrifice from the hand of the priest, what other body and blood could they expect to receive therein, but such as was suitable to the nature of that sacrifice, to wit, mystical and sacramental?

Cœlius Sedulius (to whom Gelasius bishop of Rome, with his synod of seventy bishops, giveth the title of "ve

P 1 Cor. cap. 11. ver. 26. r Rom. cap. 6. ver. 9.

9 Rhem. in Matt. cap. 26. ver. 26.

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