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.

ว

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.

Heaven. By them we are joined with Christ, and made partakers of His Passion.

Next let us consider, how and after what sort we eat the Body of Christ in the Sacrament. And here I beseech you that you may take the comfort of the Body and Blood of Christ to give good ear. For of mistaking this Mystery, grew the first error in the Church. When the Disciples of Christ heard Christ speak of this matter, and understood Him not, they were offended, and shrunk back, and departed. If we take the words of Christ in such meaning as they did, we shall be deceived and offended as they were.

This it is then which we have to consider, whether the Body of Christ go into our mouth, and our bodies, as other meats; or whether it be received spiritually, as a spiritual meat, and so pass into and nourish our soul. Whereof somewhat was said before, by the way, and shortly. But for clearer understanding of the same, we have to weigh and declare, that the eating of the Body of Christ is not gross or corporeal, but ghostly and spiritual, as a peculiar work of the mind.

The truth hereof is founded in our Creed,

and is an Article of our Christian faith. We believe that Christ did rise again from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God in glory. So saith St. Paul," If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." And again, "Our conversation is in Heaven, from whence we also look for the Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ"." Christ Himself saith to His Disciples, " It is expedient for you that I go away." and, "The poor ye have always with you, but Me ye shall not have always f.” So St. Peter saith," Whom the Heaven must contain, until the time that all things be restored, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began "."

Which speeches have occasioned the old ancient learned Fathers to teach the people after this sort, touching the Body of Christ. Vigilius, a godly Bishop and Martyr, saith, “ The flesh of Christ when it was on earth, was not in Heaven, and now, because it is in

c Coloss. iii. 1. f S. John xii. 8.

d Philip. iii. 20. g Acts iii. 21.

e S. John xvi. 7.