it safe for us, and restore it to us whensoever we are fit for it. . .

Our blessed Saviour, being desirous before his death, as by a deed of his last will, to settle upon his true disciples both such a measure of his grace in this life as might in part make them holy, and, after this life, such a fulness of all blessings as might make them eternally happy, he delivers into their hands, by way of instrument and conveyance, the blessed sacrament of his body and blood, the true root and stem of all blessings. . . .

Wherefore, as the kingdom of Israel was once made over to David with the sacred oil which Samuel poured on his head; so the body and blood of Jesus Christ is in full value, and heaven with all its fulness is in sure title, made over to true Christians, by that bread and wine which they receive at the blessed communion: the minister of Christ having, as to this effect, as much power from his Master for doing this, as any prophet or angel ever had for what they did.

5.

THE SACRAMENT A COMMEMORATIVE

SACRIFICE.

There never was on earth a true religion without some kind of sacrifices. . .

...

Of all the carnal sacrifices under the law,

M

none ever had any saving reality, as to the washing away of sins, but in dependence on Jesus Christ our Lord; and as to our service and duty towards God, which they were also to represent, none had this second end so fully performed under the law as it must be under the Gospel. . .As for the... expiation of sins, it is most certain that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone hath been sufficient for it. . . . And the reiteration of it were not only superfluous as to its real effect, but also most injurious to Christ in the very thought and attempt.

Nevertheless, this sacrifice, which by a real oblation was not to be offered more than once, is, by an eucharistical and devout commemoration, to be offered up every day. This is what the apostle calls to "set forth the death of the Lord"—to set it forth, I say, as well before the eyes of God his Father, as before the eyes of all men; as St. Augustine did explain, when he said that the holy flesh of Jesus Christ was offered up in three manners,-by prefiguring sacrifices under the law before his coming into the world, in real deed upon the cross, and by a commemorative sacrament after he is ascended into heaven. All comes to this: first, that the sacrifice, as it is itself and in itself, can never be reiterated; yet, by way of devout celebration and remembrance, it may nevertheless be reiterated every day secondly,

that whereas the holy eucharist is by itself a sacrament, wherein God offers unto all men the blessings merited by the oblation of his Son, it becomes, by our remembrance, a kind of sacrifice also, whereby we present before his eyes that same holy and precious oblation once offered. Thus the ancient Israelites did continually represent, in their solemn prayers to God, the covenant he had made once with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their forefathers; thus did the Jews in their captivity turn their faces towards either the country or to the temple, where the mercyseat and the ark were, which were the memorials of his promises and the sacramental engagement of his blessings; and thus the Christians in their prayers do every day insist upon, and represent to God the Father, the meritorious passion of their Saviour, as the only sure ground whereon both God may give, and they obtain, the blessings which they do pray for. And because it is the High-Priest himself, the true Anointed of the Lord, who hath set up this table and altar for the communication of his body and blood to men, and for the memorial of both to God,-it cannot be doubted but that the one must be most advantageous to the penitent sinner, and the other most acceptable to that gracious Father, who is always well pleased in his Son, and who loves the repenting and sincere return of his children.

The people of Israel, in worshipping, ever turned their eyes and their hearts towards that sacrifice, the blood whereof the highpriest was to carry into the sanctuary. So let us ever turn our eyes and our hearts towards Jesus, our eternal High-Priest, who is gone up into the true sanctuary, and doth there continually present both his own body and blood before God, and (as Aaron did) all the true Israel of God in a memorial. In the meantime, we beneath in the Church present to God his body and blood in a memorial, that, under this shadow of his cross and figure of his sacrifice, we may present ourselves in very deed before him...

Hence one may see both the great use and advantage of more frequent communion; and how much it concerns us, whensoever we go to receive it, to lay out all our wants, and pour out all our griefs, our prayers, and our praises, before the Lord, in so happy a conjuncture. The primitive Christians did it so, who did as seldom meet to preach or pray without a communion, as did the old Israelites to worship without a sacrifice.

III.

BISHOP JEWEL.

The ministration of the holy communion is oftentimes of the old learned fathers called

a sacrifice; not for that they thought the priest had authority to sacrifice the Son of God, but for that therein we offer up unto God thanks and praises for that great acrifice once made upon the cross. So saith St. Augustine: "In these fleshly sacrifices (of the Jews) there was a figure of the flesh that Christ afterward would offer; but in this sacrifice of the Church there is a thanksgiving, and a remembrance of that fiesh which Christ hath already offered for us." So Nazianzen calleth the holy communion a figure of that great mystery of the death of Christ." This it is that Eusebius calleth

the sacrifice of the Lord's table," which also he calleth "the sacrifice of praise." Chrysostom sheweth in what sense other ancient fathers used this word sacrifice. For, as he saith, "We offer up the same sacrifice that Christ offered," so in most plain wise, and by sundry words, he removeth all doubt, and declareth in what sort and meaning we offer it. He saith not, "We offer up the Son of God unto his Father, and that verily and indeed;" but contrariwise thus he saith, "We offer indeed, but in remembrance of his death. This sacrifice is an example of that sacrifice. This that we do is done in remembrance of that that was done. We offer up the same that Christ offered; or rather, we work the remembrance of that sacrifice." Thus we