weeds, knoweth not how they come; they grow of themselves, he soweth them not. But when or since what time it hath been received and allowed of, I will tell you. It was first determined and enacted in the Council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent the Third, in the time of King John, king of England, and in the year of our Lord 1215, that is, 350 years ago, and not before. Then was it first so named, and made a matter of faith, and never before. This I speak not of myself; they that maintain that error confess it; the most learned, and wisest, and sagest of them say it. And yet then was it no catholic faith, for it was only received in the Church of Rome; the other Churches over all the world received it not, as appeareth by a Council holden at Florence. Therefore, if transubstantiation be a matter of faith, it is a new late found faith, and no old and Catholic faith. In the time of our great grandfathers it was not so taken. Afterwards, Pope Honorius the Third commanded that it should be kept under a canopy, and that the people should worship the Sacrament.

* Anno 1226.

And after him, Urban the Fourth' made a new holyday in honour of it, which he called Corpus Christi day. And all these things have been done within these few years; for before, in the times of S. Augustine, S. Jerome, S. Chrysostom, and the old Fathers, they were never heard of. But to return to that

we have in hand, whether the bread and wine in the Sacrament remain in their proper nature? Yes verily, for so it is avouched by our Saviour, by St. Paul, by St. Ignatius, Justin, Irenæus, Origen, Dionysius, Cyprian, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine, Gelasius, Theodoret, Cyril, Bertram, and Rabanus. By so many good and lawful witnesses it appeareth, that the bread and wine remain in the same nature and substance as before.

I seek not to astonish you by bringing in such a heap of authors, nor yet to seek mine own glory thereby; God is my witness, and His Christ. If I would seek mine own commodity, I should hold my peace, and not unfold these errors, wherewith the Church of God hath been disquieted these late years.

y Anno 1265.

As for glory, I have none in these things; shame come upon them, that seek the glory and commendation of men; our glory is to discharge our conscience, and to speak the truth, that we may be blameless in the day of our Lord.

And yet in speaking thus of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and denying the strange and new learning of transubstantiation, and making it known that the bread and wine continue still that they were before, we do not conceive basely or irreverently of the Sacrament, we do not make it a bare or naked token. Let no man be deceived. We do both think and speak soberly, and with reverence of the holy Mysteries. As we cannot call them more than they are; so may we not esteem them less than they are, by the ordinance and institution of Christ.

We say, they are changed, that they have a dignity and preeminence which they had not before; that they are not now common bread or common wine, but the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; a holy mystery; a covenant between Christ and us; a testimony unto our conscience, that Christ is the Lamb

of God; a perfect seal, and sufficient warrant of God's promises, whereby God bindeth Himself to us, and we stand likewise bounden unto God, so as God is our God, and we are His people.

In Baptism, the nature and substance of water doth remain still: and yet is not it bare water. It is changed, and made the Sacrament of our regeneration. It is water

consecrated, and made holy by the Blood of Christ. They which are washed therein are not washed with water, but in the Blood of the unspotted Lamb. One thing is seen, and another understood.

We see the water,

but we understand the Blood of Christ. Even so we see the bread and wine, but with the eyes of our understanding we look beyond these creatures, we reach our spiritual senses into Heaven, and behold the ransom and price of our salvation. We do behold in the Sacrament not what it is, but what it doth signify. When we receive it with due reverence and faith, we say as said Gregory Nyssen; "I know another kind of meat bearing the likeness and resemblance of our bodily meat, the pleasure and sweetness

whereof passeth only into the soul'." It goeth not into the mouth or belly, but only into the soul, and it feedeth the mind inwardly, as the other outwardly feedeth the body.

We say as S. Augustine, "Christ is the Bread of our heart." And as S. Basil, "There is a spiritual mouth of the inner man, by which he is nourished by receiving (Christ) the Word of life, which is the Bread that came from Heaven"." In this Mystery of the death of Christ, His Death and Passion is renewed to our remembrance. We are so moved to sorrow for our sins, which have been the cause of His death; and to be thankful for the great mercy of God, which by this means wrought our redemption, as if we did see Him present before our faces hanging upon the cross. We know that

Christ has left His Sacraments to His Church, that they might be helps to lift us up into

z Ego aliam escam agnosco, qua, &c. De Crea. Hom.

C. XX.

Ipse est panis cordis nostra. S. Aug. in Psal. xlviii.

b Est spirituale os interioris hominis, quo nutritur recipiens verbum vitæ, quod verbum est panis, qui descendit de cœlo. Basil. in Psal. xxxiii.