through hope of thy everlasting kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy Dear Son."

This, then, is to feed upon Christ. Lo, the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual, while the elements be bodily and sensible.

Which the allowed Homilies of the Church also have laboured, in most significant terms, to set forth.

"Thou must carefully search and know," saith the First Sermon concerning the Sacrament (Tome 2.), "what dignities are provided for thy soul: whither thou art come, not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption, but thy inward man to immortality and life; nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest, but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth. For this table is not, saith Chrysostom, for chattering jays; but for eagles, who fly thither where the dead body lieth."

And, afterwards, to omit some other passages, most pregnantly thus: "It is well known, 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 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 abjecting and binding ourselves to the elements and creatures; whereas, by the advice of the Council of Nice, we ought to lift up our minds by faith, and, leaving these inferior and earthly things, there seek it where the Sun of Righteousness ever shineth. Take this lesson, O thou that art desirous of this table, of Emissenus, a godly Father, That, when thou goest 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 the mind, thou receive it with the hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with the inward man." Thus that Homily, in the voice of the Church of England.

Who now shall make doubt, to say, that, in the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner: so as nothing is objected to our senses, but the elements; nothing, but Christ, to our faith? and, therefore, that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot, as those, that must tread in the midst, betwixt profaneness and superstition: not affixing a Deity upon the elements, on the one side; nor, on the other, slighting them with a common regard: not adoring the creatures; nor basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God, whom they do really exhibit to us?

Let us not, then, think it any boldness, either to enquire or to determine of the Manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament; and confidently to say, that his body is locally in heaven, spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon earth.

True it is, that, in our Saviour's speech, John vi., to believe in Christ, is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, even besides and

out of the act of this Eucharistical Supper; so as, whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith, makes a private meal of his Saviour: but the Holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ; for now, over and above our spiritual eating of him, we do here eat hin Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ; but here, by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviour's institution hath made betwixt the sign and the thing signified, the faithful communicant doth partake of Christ in a more peculiar manner: now, his very senses help to nourish his soul; and, by his eyes, his hands, his taste, Christ is spiritually conveyed into his heart, to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation.

But, to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point, let that serve for the upshot of all, which is expressly set down in the vth. Rubric in the end of the Communion, set forth as the judgment of the Church of England, both in King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's time, though lately, upon negligence, omitted in the impression: in these words; "Lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare, That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received, or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For, as concerning the Sacramental Bread and Wine, they remain still in their very Natural Substances; and therefore may not be adored, for that were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians: and, as concerning the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven, and not here; for it is against the truth of Christ's Natural Body to be in more places than one, at one time, &c."

Thus, the Church of England, having plainly explicated herself, hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth. Neither is she any changeling in her judgment, however some unsteady minds may vary in their conceits. Away, then, with those nice scruplers, who, for some further ends, have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense, with a non licet inquirere de modo: and conclude we, resolutely, that there is no truth in Divinity more clear, than this of Christ's gracious exhibition, and our faithful reception of him in this Blessed Sacrament.

Babes, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

POLEMICAL WORKS.

PART SECOND.

ON THE

QUESTIONS

BETWEEN

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

AND

THE DISSENTERS.

A

COMMON APOLOGY

OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND,

AGAINST

THE UNJUST CHALLENGES OF THE OVER-JUST SECT,

COMMONLY CALLED

BROWNISTS.

WHEREIN THE

GROUNDS AND DEFENCES OF THE SEPARATION

ARE LARGELY DISCUSSED.

OCCASIONED BY A LATE PAMPHLET, PUBLISHED UNDER THE NAME OF

"AN ANSWER TO A CENSORIOUS EPISTLE:"

WHICH THE READER SHALL FIND PREFIXED TO THE SEVER.1L SECTIONS•.

BY JOSEPH HALL.

* "Which the reader shall find in the margin," is the expression of the original edition, 4to, 1610; as the different parts of the "Answer," were, in that ed tion, dispersed through the margin of the "Apology." The above expression is that of the folio; wherein the passages are collected together before each section. I have, however, placed them in the text, immediately before their respective answers, EDITOR.