NOTE (8), page 71.

Doctor Donne's Sermons, p. 213.

Thus, also, a very early, and respected witness of the true faith of our church:-" It is well known, that the meat we seek for in this Supper, is spiritual food, the nourishment of our soul; a heavenly refection, and not earthly; an invisible meat, and not bodily ; a ghostly substance, and not carnal : so that, to think, that, without faith we may enjoy the eating and drinking thereof, or that that is the fruition of it, is but to dream a gross carnal feeding, basely objecting and binding ourselves to the elements and creatures; whereas, by the Council of Nicene, we ought to lift up our minds by faith, and leaving those inferior and earthly things, there seek it, where the Sun of Righteousness ever shineth. Take, then, this lesson, O thou that art desirous of this table, of Emessenus, a godly Father, that, when thou goest up to the reverend Communion, to be satisfied with spiritual meats, thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God, thou marvel with reverence, thou touch it with thy mind, thou receive it with the hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with thy inward man. Thus, we see, beloved, that, resorting to this table, we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity, all distrust in God's promises; we must make ourselves living members of Christ's body, for the unbelieving and faithless cannot feed upon that precious body."- Hom. I., On the worthy receiving, and reverent esteeming, of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.

NOTE (9), p. 74.

Bishop Taylor. Life of Christ.

NOTE (10), p. 76.

"Nor do we doubt with them [the ancient Catholic Fathers], to call the Sacraments a kind of visible words; signets of righteousness, and symbols of grace: and clearly affirm, that, in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the body and blood of our Lord is truly exhibited to the believers; that is, the enlivening flesh of the Son of God, the bread that comes from above, the nourishment of immortality, the grace, the truth, and the life; and that it is the communion of the body and blood of Christ, by the participation of which, we are quickened, strengthened, and fed to immortality, and by which we are conjoined, united, and incorporated with Christ, that we may remain in him, and he in us."- Bp. Jewell. Apology, chap. ii. sect. 11.

NOTE (11), p. 76.

"Master. Is there, then, not an only figure, but the truth itself, of the benefits that thou hast rehearsed, delivered in the Supper?

Scholar. What else? for, sith Christ is the truth itself, it is no doubt, but that the thing which he testifieth in words, and representeth in signs, he performeth also in deed, and delivereth it unto us; and that he as surely maketh them that believe in him, partakers of his body

and blood, as they surely know that they have received the bread and wine, with their mouth and stomach." Dean Nowell. Catechism.

66

Although the sacramental tokens are only significations and figures, yet doth Almighty God effectually work in them that duly receive his Sacraments, those divine and celestial operations which he hath promised, and by the Sacraments are signified; for else, they were vain and unfruitful Sacraments, as well to the godly, as the ungodly. And, therefore, I never said of the whole Supper, that it is but a signification, or bare memory, of Christ's death; but I teach, that it is a spiritual refreshing, wherein our souls are fed and nourished, with Christ's very flesh and blood, to eternal life." - Abp. Cranmer. Letter to Bp. Gardiner.

It was in the same spirit, that, in the time of James the First, Bishop Overall penned that admirable definition of a Sacrament (in the strict sense of that word), which we learn in the Church Catechism: a Sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." Wicliffe defines a Sacrament to be "A token that may be seen, of a thing which may be not seen, by any bodily eye."-Lewis. Life of Wicliffe, p. 165.

NOTE (12), page 77.

"Furthermore, if any man ask ye, what availeth it thus to eat and drink? Ye shall answer, These words do declare what profit we receive thereby, My Body

which is given for you: my Blood which is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. By which words Christ declareth, that, by this Sacrament, and word of promise, are given to us remission of sins, life, and salvation. For where forgiveness of sins is, there is life and salvation."-Abp. Cranmer. Catechism.

"The Eucharist is a Sacrament, in which, those who sit as guests at the table of the Lord, partake of the food of bread, and the cup of wine. By the communication of which bread and wine, among them, the grace of the Holy Spirit is sealed; as well as the pardon of sins to which they attain, who, by faith, discern and perceive the most holy Body of Christ affixed to the Cross, for the sake of our salvation, and his Blood poured out to take away our sins, as the promises of God themselves plainly declare." - Reformatio Legum, chap. iv,

NOTE (13), page 77.

"At that time, the Angels are present with the priest. With those heavenly intelligences, in honour of Him who lieth there, the whole sanctuary is filled, and especially the chancel. This we may fairly conclude, when we reflect on the mysteries which are celebrated there." -S. Chrysostom. De Sacerdotio, lib. vi. cap. iv.

The story he proceeds to relate, of some one who saw the holy Angels round the altar, I omit; because St. Chrysostom himself affirmed, in after times, that, in his age, miracles had ceased. The tale, however, shows, that the passage is to be understood not figuratively but literally.

There is a very sublime paragraph, to the same effect, in Origen against Celsus, lib. 8.: "Let him consider, that, as when the body is moved, the shadow follows its motion; so, in like manner, when we have God, who is over all, favourable to us, it follows, that we shall have all his friends, both angels, and souls, and spirits, favourable to us also. For they have a fellow feeling with those, who are thought worthy to find favour from God. Nor is this all: they labour with them, they are friendly to them, they sympathize with them, they pray with them. So that, we may be bold to say, that when men, who, with resolution, propose to themselves the best things, pray unto God, thousands of the sacred powers pray together with them, unspoken to, [axλnto] without any invocation."

NOTE (14), page 78.

"Shall I offer unto God those victims which he brought into the world for my use, and thus cast back upon him his own gift? It were ingratitude. And the more so, since an acceptable sacrifice is to be found in a good disposition, a pure soul, and an ingenuous conscience. He, therefore, supplicates God, who studies to be harmless. He makes his oblations, who labours to be just and upright in all his dealings. He slays the noblest victim, who rescues from danger a fellow creature. These are our sacrifices; these are the sacred rites, with which we approach our God. And thus, among Christians, he is the best worshipper, who labours to be most righteous."-M. Minucius Felix. Octavius. cap. xxxii.