The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ...

SECT. IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sa∣crament enumerated and proved par∣ticularly.

IN the reception of the blessed Sacrament; there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions, the conjugations of moral duties, the of∣fices of preparation and reception, the reverence and the devotion; of which I shall give account in the following Chapters; here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the spirit of God in the use of the Sacrament it self precisely.

But first I consider that it must be infinite∣ly certain that great spiritual blessings are con∣sequent to the worthy receiving this Divine Sa∣crament; because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand: for it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christs body is there eaten, or in a spiritual sense. If in a carnal, it profits no••hing. If in a spiritual he be eaten, let the meaning of that be considered, and it will convince us that innume∣rable blessings are in the very reception and Com∣munion. Now what the meaning of this spiritual eating is; I have already declared in this chapter,

and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel.* 1.1 In the Sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally; but we receive him spiritually; and that of it self is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces. The very understanding what we do, tells us also what we receive. But I descend to particulars.

1. And first I reckon that the Sacrament is in∣tended to increase our faith: for although it is with us in this Holy Sacrament, as it was with Abra∣ham in the Sacrament of circumcision; he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised; and received the Sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace; and we are to believe, before we receive these symbols of Christ death; yet as by loving we love more, and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification; so by believing we believe more; and by publication * 1.2 of our confessi∣on we are made confident, and by seeing the signs of what we believe, our very senses are in∣corporated into the article; and he that hath shall have more, and when we concorporate the sign with the signification, we con∣joyn the word and the spirit, and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing; and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing, and we shall believe more abundantly; this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exer∣cise of its own acts; but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that Sacrament; it being cer∣tain, that since the Sacrament being of Divine institution it could not be to no purpose (for in

spiritualibus Sacramentis ubi praecipit virtus,* 1.3 servit effectus, where the commandment comes from him that hath all power, the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event) and therefore that the repre∣senting of the death of Christ being an act of faith, and commanded by God must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own na∣ture; that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature, but by Gods blessing his own in∣struments, can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience. For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith: the Latine Church for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice, hath put words re∣lating to this purpose, [For this is the cup of my blood of the New and Eternal Testament, the mystery of faith, which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins.] And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ; as it is confessed by all the Schools of Chri∣stians, then it is certain, that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ, we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ; and let that be ex∣pounded how we list, we are not in this world ca∣pable, and we do not need a greater blessing and God may s••y in the words of Isaac to his son Esau, with corn and wine have I sustained [thee] and what is there left that I can do unto thee my son? To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ Sacramentally is an act of faith, and every act of faith joyned with the Sacrament does grow by the nature of grace, and the measures of a blessing, and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually, and this reflexion of acts like circles of a glorious and eternal fire, passes on in the univocal production

of its own parts till it passe from grace to glory.

2. Of the same consideration it is, that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the Sacrament requiring them, or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation, do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason; but I instance only in that of Charity, of which this is signally and by an especial remark the Sacrament: and therefore these holy conventions are called by St. Jude, feasts of charity,* 1.4 which were Christian Festivals, in which also they had the Sacrament ad∣joined; but whether that do effect this persuasion or no, yet the thing it self is dogmatically affirmed in St. Pauls explication of that mystery, * 1.5 we are one body because we partake of one bread; that is, plainly, Christ is our head, and we the members of his body, and are united in this mystical union by the holy Sacrament; not only because it symbolically does teach our duty, and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature, and a sensible Sermon; nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the publick Sermons of the Go∣spel, and the duties of preparati∣on, and the usual expectations of conscience and Religion; but even by the blessing of God, and the operation of the holy Spirit in the Sacrament, which (as appears plainly by the words of the Apo∣stle) is designed to this very end, to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God, a band of charity, and the instrument of Christian Commu∣nion; that we may be one body, because we par∣take

of one bread; that is, we may be mystically united by the Sacramental participation: and therefore it was not without mystery, that the Con∣gregation of all Christ servants, his Church, and this Sacramental bread, are both in Scripture called by the same name: This bread is the body of Christ, and the Church is Christs body too; for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body, the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed, that although the expres∣sion is tropical * 1.6 and figurative, that we are made one body, because it is meant in a spiritual sense; yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world; we are really joyned to one common Di∣vine principle, Jesus Christ our Lord, and from him we do communicate in all the blessings of his grace, and the fruits of his passion, and we shall, if we abide in this union, be all one body of a spi∣ritual Church in heaven, there to reign with Christ for ever. Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth; if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive, we must confess this to be a real and e∣minent benefit; and yet whatever it be, it is there∣fore effected upon us by this Sacrament, because we eat of one bread. The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry; they are plain and easie, and whatever interpretation can be put upon them, it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing, and the way of the Sa∣cramental efficacy; but it cannot evacuate the bles∣sing, or confute the thing: Only it is to be ob∣served in this, as in all other instances of the like nature, that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours, for spi∣ritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do

not grow like grasse, but like corn; not whether we do any husbandry or no, but if we cultivate the ground, then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich, if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily, we shall receive this fruit also. Which fruit is thus expressed, say∣ing,* 1.7 [this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned, or united with our head which is in the heavens.]

3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins; not that it hath any formal efficacy, or any inherent vertue to procure pardon, but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood, which blood was shed for the remission of sins, and is the great means of impetration, and as the Schools use to speak, is the meritorious cause of it. For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ: an internal grace and an external mini∣stery. Faith is the inward applicatory, and if there be any outward at all, it must be the Sacraments; and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular; for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ, and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death, and it is a Sacramental participation of it. Now to partake of it Sacramentally, is by Sacrament to receive it, that is, so to apply it to us, as that

can be applyed: it brings it to our spirit, it pro∣pounds it to our faith, it represents it as the matter of Eucharist, it gives it as meat and drink to our souls, and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it, viz, as broken for, as shed for the remission of our sins. Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be, and what can be meant by sacramental participation? for un∣less the Sacraments do communicate what they re∣late to; they are no communion or communication at all; for it is true that our mouth eats the mate∣rial signs; but at the same time, faith eats too, and therefore must eat, that is, must partake of the thing signified; faith is not maintained by ce∣remonies: the body receives the body of the mystery; we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths, but faith is not corporeal, but feeds up∣on the mystery it self; it entertains the grace, and enters into that secret which the spirit of God con∣veyes under the signature. Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remis∣sion of sins; if the soul does the work of the soul, as the body the work of the body, the soul re∣ceives remission of sins, as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament.

But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner; but to him that repents truely, & so does the Sacrament * 1.8 of Christs

death; this can do no more than that: and there∣fore let no man come with his guilt about him, and in the heat and in the affections of his sin, and hope to find his pardon by this ministery. He that thinks so will but deceive, wil but ruine himself. They are excellent but very severe words, which God spake to the Jews, and which are a prophe∣tical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries, What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought l••wdness with many? The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil, that is, this holy sacrifice, the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good, if thou hast not ceased from doing evil. But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose, Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest? Deceive not thy self; thou hast no part nor portion in this matter. For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon, but not alone; but in conjunction with all that Christ re∣quires as conditions of pardon; but when the conditions are present, the Sacrament ministers pardon, as pardon is ministred in this world; that is, by parts, and in order to several purposes, and with power of revocation, by suspending the Di∣vine wrath, by procuring more graces, by obtain∣ing time of repentance; and powers and possibili∣ties of working out our salvation; and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvati∣on. For in the usual methods of God, pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance; which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin; pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance; and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion,

is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance, but indeed it is the best and the noblest, and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon, and the grace of God does the most illu∣striously consign it. But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance.

4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer, the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world. For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and be∣came our High Priest,* 1.9 having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse, he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God, and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven; where in the vertue of the crosse he in∣tercedes for us, and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf. That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul; that there is no other sacrifice to be offered,* 1.10 but that on the crosse; it is evident, because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; and therefore since it is necessa••y that he hath something to offer so long as he is a Priest, and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offer∣ed upon the crosse;* 1.11 it follows that Christ in heaven perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father, and in vertue of that obtains all good things for his Church.

Now what Christ does in heaven he hath com∣manded us to do on earth, that is, to represent his

death, † 1.12 to commemorate this sacrifice, by humble prayer and thankful record; and by faithful mani∣festation and joyful Eucharist to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father, so ministring in his Priesthood, and doing according to his command∣ment and his example; the Church being the image of heaven, the Priest the Minister of Christ, the holy Table being a Copy of the celestial altar; and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World, being alwayes the same; it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the Crosse; but it is won∣derfully represented in heaven, and graciously re∣presented here; by Christs action there, by his commandment here; and the event of it is plainly this, that as Christ in vertue of his sacrifice on the crosse intercedes for us with his Father; so does the Minister of Christs Priest-hood here, that the vertue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church both for things temporal, and eternal: and therefore

it was not without great mystery and clear sig∣nification that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the crosse should be made by breaking bread and effusion of wine; to signifie to us the nature and sacredness of the Liturgy we are about, and that we minister in the Priest-hood of Christ; who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchi∣sedeck; that is, we are Ministers in that unchanga∣ble Priest-hood imitating in the external Ministery, the prototype Melchisedeck: Of whom it is said, † 1.13 he brought forth bread and wine and was the Priest of the most high God; and in the internal imitating the antitype or the substance, Christ himself; who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us, and by the Sacraments of bread and wine, and the pray∣ers of oblation and intercession commands us to officiate in his Priest-hood, in the external mi∣nistring like Melchisedeck; in the internal after the manner of Christ himself.

This is a great and a mysterious truth, which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews, so it is understood by the ancient and holy Doctors of the Church. So St.Ambrose. [Now Christ is offered, but he is offered as a man, as if he recei∣ved his passion; but he offers himself as a Priest, that he may pardon our sins; here in image or re∣presentation, there in truth, as an Advocate inter∣ceding with his Father for us.] So St. Chrysostom;

In Christ once the Sacrifice was offered, which is powerful to our eternal salvation; but what then do we? do not we offer every day? what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death, and the Sacrifice is one, not many; because Christ was once offered: but this Sacrifice is the example or representation of that. And another: Christ is not impiously slain by us, but piously sacrificed; and by this means we declare the Lords death till he come: for here through him we humbly do in earth, which he as a son who is heard according to his reverence, does powerfully for us in heaven, where as an advocate he intercedes with his Father, whose office or work it is; for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us and for us, and as it were to presse it upon his Father. To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin: By this he is the Priest and the Oblation, the Sacrament of which he would have the daily Sacrifice of the Church to be; which because it is the body of that head, she learns from him to offer her self to God by him, who offered himself to God for her. And there∣fore this whole Office is called by St. Basil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the prayer of oblation, the great Chri∣stian Sacrifice and Oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of our selves and of our brethren unto God in virtue of the great Sacrifice, Christ upon the Crosse, whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner, by divine appoint∣ment.

The effect of this I represent in the words of Lyra: [That which does purge and cleanse our sins must be celestial and spiritual, and that which is such hath a perpetual efficacy, and needs not to be done again; but that which is daily offered in the Church, is a daily commemoration of that one Sacrifice which was offered on the Crosse, accor∣ding

to the command of Christ, Do this in comme∣moration of me.]

Now this holy Ministry and Sacrament of this death, being according to Christs commandment and in our manner a representation of the eter∣nal Sacrifice, an imitation of Christs intercession in heaven in vertue of that Sacrifice, must be after the pattern in the Mount, it must be as that is, pur â prece, as Tertullians phrase, is by pure prayer; it is an intercession for the whole Church present and absent in the virtue of that Sacrifice. I need add no more, but leave it to the meditation, to the joy and admiration of all Christian people to think, and to enumerate the blessings of this Sacrament, which is so excellent a representation of Christs death, by Christs commandment; and so glorious an imi∣tation of that intercession which Christ makes in heaven for us all; it is all but the representment of his death, in the way of prayer and interpellati∣on; Christ as head, and we as members; he as High Priest, and we servants as his Ministers: and therefore I shall stop here, and leave the rest for wonder and Eucharist: we may pray here with all the solemnity and advantages imaginable; we may with hope and comfort use the words of David, I will take the cup of salvation,* 1.14 and call upon the name of the Lord: we are here very likely to prevail for all blessings, * 1.15 for this is by way of eminency, glo∣ry, and singularity, Calix benedictionis, the cup of blessing which we bless, and by which God will bless us, and for which he is to be blessed for ever∣more.

5. By the means of this Sacrament our bodies are made capable of the resurrection to life and e∣ternal glory. For when we are externally and symbolically in the Sacrament, and by faith and the spirit of God internally united to Christ, and made partakers of his body and his blood, we are joyned and made one with him who did rise again; and when the head is risen, the members shall not see corruption for ever, but rise again after the pattern of our Lord. If by the Sacrament we are really united and made one with Christ, then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him; we shall rise again, and we shall enter into glory. But it is certain we are united to Christ by it; we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths, and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions co∣operating. * 1.16 For what good will it do us to partake of his bo∣dy, if we do not also partake of his spirit? but certain it is, if we do one, we do both; cum natu∣ralis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis, as St. Hilaries expression is; the natural propriety, viz the outward elements by the Sacrament, that is, by the institution and blessing of God, become the Sacrament of a perfect unity, which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle; we which are sanctified, and he which sanctifies are all of one; and again, the bread which we break, is it not the communication of the body of Christ; and the

cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ? plainly saying, that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood, and then we become spiritually one body, and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union; the chief of which in relation to our bodies, is resurrection from the grave. And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church. So St. Irenaeus teaches us.

As the bread which grows from the earth,* 1.17 receiving the calling of God, (that is, blessed by prayer and the word of God) is not now common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, an earthly, and an heavenly: so also our bodies re∣ceiving the Eucharist, are not now corruptible, but have the hope of resurrection. And again, when the mingled calice and the made bread re∣ceives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed, it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished, and our substance does consist: and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God, which is eter∣nal life, which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ?* 1.18

And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eu∣charist 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the medicine of im∣mortallity, for the drink is his blood who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, incorruptible love and eter∣nal life 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel; the symbols of our resur∣rection, the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life, so Cyril of Alexandria; for this is to drink the blood of Jesus, to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility, said St. Clement. For bread is food, and blood is life; but we drink the blood of Christ, himself commanding us that together with

him, we may by him be partakers of eternal life; So St. Cyprian, aut quicun{que} sit author Sermon. de coenâ Domini.

6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies, and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations; there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament. It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health, and secular ad∣vantages: I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia▪ who being oppressed with a violent head-ach, threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sa∣crament was placed, and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place: Nor that of St. Ambrose, who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout, in the time of ministration, gave him the holy smbols, and told him it was good for his sick∣nesse also, and that he presently found his cure. I my self knew a person of great sanctity, who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting, and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the ho∣ly Sacrament, to which she always bore a great re∣verence, she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it, lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for; but her desire was the greater passion, and prevailed; she received it, and swallowed it, and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up, in zeal and with a new passion took it in again, and then retained it, and from that instant speedily recovered, against the hope of her Physi∣cian, and the expectation of all her friends. God does miracles every day; and he who with spittle

and clay cured the blind mans eyes, may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body. But that which is most famous and remarked is, that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur, to W••lliam Earl of Hasburgh, and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries. It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and mira∣culous effects of the holy Sacrament, than to find faith to believe them now-adayes; and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul,* 1.19 affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament; and there∣fore it is not to be deemed, but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it: for if by our fault it is a savour of death; it is cer∣tain, by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life. But of these things in particular we have no promise, and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain ex∣pectations be designed by us in our communions. If God please to send any of them, as sometimes he hath done, it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation.* 1.20

7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary. These holy mysteries being taken, cause that Christ shall be in us, and we in Christ; and if this be more than words; we need no fur∣ther inquiry into the particulars of blessing conse∣quent to a worthy communion, for if God hath given his Son unto us, how shall not he with him give

us all things else? nay all things that we need are effected by this, said St. Clement of Alexandria, one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ: Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes,* 1.21 sanctifi••antur & corpore & animâ: They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul.

Fonte renascentes membris & sanguine Christi Vescimur, atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur. Sedul.

How great therefore and how illustrious bene∣fits (it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emisse∣nus) does the power of the Divine blessing pro∣duce? you ought not to esteem it strange and im∣possible; for how earthly and mortal things are converted into the substance of Christ, ask thy self, who art regenerated in Christ: Not long since, thou wast a stranger from life, a pilgrim and wanderer from mercy, and being inwardly dead thou wert banished from the way of life. On a sudden being initiated in the laws of Christ, and renewed by the Mysteries of Salvation, thou didst passe suddenly into the body of the Church not by seeing, but by believing, and from a son of perdition, thou hast obtained to be adopted a son of God by a secret purity: remaining in a visible measure, thou art invisibly made greater than thy self, without any increase of quantity, thou art the same thou wert, and yet very much another person in the progression of Faith, to the outward nothing is added, but the inward is wholly changed, and so a man is made the son of Christ, and Christ is formed in the mind of a man. As therefore suddenly without any bodily

perception, the former vileness being laid down, on the sudden thou hast put on a new dignity, and this that God hath done, that he hath cured thy wounds, washed off thy staines, wiped away thy spots, is trusted to thy discerning, not thy eyes: so when thou ascendest the reverend altar to be satisfied with spiritual food, by faith regard, honour, admire the holy body of God, touch it with thy mind, take it with the hand of thy heart even with the draught of the whole in∣ward man:

Notes

• * 1.1

  Chap. 3. Sect. 5.
• * 1.2

  Ante communicationem corporis Christi & sangui∣nis, juxta Orientalium par∣tium morem, unanimiter clarâ voce sacratissimum fi∣dei recenseant Symbolum, ut primum populi quam credulitatem teneant, fate∣antur. Concil. Tolet. 3. c. 2. & St. Ambros. quibus [sym∣bolis] vescentes confessio∣nem fidei suae addebant: re∣spondebant. Amen. Idem etiam sancitum in Concil. Agath.
• * 1.3

  Euseb. Emiss. ha∣betur de consecrat dist. 2.
• * 1.4

  Jude 12.
• * 1.5

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Corpus sumus de conscien∣tiâ Religionis, & disciplinae unitate, & spei foedere. Coi∣mus ad Deum quasi manu factâ pre••ptionibus ambia∣mus. Haec vis Deo grata est Tertul. apol. cap. 39. Idem ad vers. haeret. cap. 20. ait Sacramentum esse contes∣serationem mutuae dilecti∣onis in membris Ecclesiae inter se.
• * 1.6

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Isid. Pe∣lusiot.
• * 1.7

  Serm. 8. ad fratres in erem. Hoc Sa∣cramen∣tum ideo nobis datum est ut corpus Ecclesiae Christi in terris cum capite quod est in coelis coadunetur] Itaque petendo panem nostrum quotidianum perpetuitatem postulamus in Christo, & individui∣tatem à corpore ejus. Tertul. de orat. Et ideo panem nostrum, i.e. Christum dari nobis quotidie petimus, ut qui in Christo manemus, à sanctificatione ejus & corpore non ••ecedamus St. Cyprian de orat. Domin.
• * 1.8

  Qui scel eratè vivunt in Ecclesiâ, & communicare non desinunt putantes setali communione mundari, discant nihil ad emundationem proficere dicente prophetâ, quid est quod dilectus meus facit in domo meâ scelera multa? nunquid carnes sanctae auferent à te malitias tuas? Jer. 11.15. Isidor. Hispal. de summo bono lib. 1. cap. 24.
• * 1.9

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• * 1.10

  Heb. 7.24.
• * 1.11

  Heb. 8.3.
• † 1.12

  Nonne semel immola∣tus est Christus in seipso? & tamen in Sacramento non solum per omnes paschae solennitates, sed omni die populis immolatur. Nec utique mentitur qui inter∣rogatus, eum responderit immolari: si enim Sacramenta quan∣dam similitudinem earum rerum quarum Sacramenta sunt non haberent, omnino Sacramenta non essent St. Aug. Epist. ad Boni∣fac. 23. Quia corpus assumptum ablaturus erat ab oculis, & illa∣turus syderibus, necessarium erat ut die coenae Sacramentum no∣bis corporis & sanguinis consecraretur, ut coleretur jugiter per mysterium quod semel offerebatur in precium, ut quia quotidi∣ana & indefessa currebat pro omnium salute redemptio, perpetua esset redemptionis oblatio, & perennis victima illa viveret in me∣moria, & semper praesens esset in gratia, vera unica, & perfecta hostia, fide aestimanda non specie, ne{que} exteriori censenda visu sed interiore affectu. Unde coelestis confirmat authoritas, quia caro mea verè est cibus, & sanguis meus verè est potus. Recedat ergo om∣ne infidelitatis ambiguum quoniam qui author est muneris, idem testis est veritatis. Euseb. Emiss. & habetur de consecrat. dist. 2.
• † 1.13

  Non sine mysterio, sine re, vel panis ad aram,Vel vinum fertur cui su∣peraddis aquam.Utra{que} sub typico ritu, for∣maque futuri,Melchisedec Domino sa∣crificasse serunt.Hildebert. Cenoman.Melchisedec Domino pa∣nem vinum{que} litavit,Christus idem faciens, pa∣ctum vetus evacuavit.Hugo Card.— Rex ille Salem, qui munere tali,Mystica praemisit summi libamina Christi.Claud. Marian victor. lib. 3. in Genes.
• * 1.14

  Psal. 116.
• * 1.15

  Hinc ergo pen∣semus quale sit hoc sa∣cramen∣tum, quod pro absolutione nostrâ passionem unigeniti filii imitetur. Quis n. fidelium habere dubium posset in ipsâ immolationis horâ ad Sacerdotis vo∣••••m coelos aperiri, in illo Jesu Christi mysterio angelorum choros ••••lesse: S. Gregor. in homil. Paschali.
• * 1.16

  Humana enim caro quae erat peccato mortua, carnī mundae unita, incorporata, unum cum illâ effecta, vi∣vit de spiritu ejus, sicut u∣num corpus de suo spiritu, St. Aug. Epist. ad Iren.

  Condescendens Deus no∣stris fragilitatibus, influit oblatis vim vitae conver∣tens ea in veritatem propriae carnis, ut corpus vitae qua∣si quoddam semen vivifica∣tivum inveniatur in nobis. 8. Cyril. ad Calosyrium.

  St. Cyril. l. 11. in Johan. c. 26. Christus suo corpore per communionem mysticam be∣nedicens credentibus & secum & inter nos unum corpus ef∣ficit. de Trinit. lib. 8.
• * 1.17

  Lib. 4. c. 34. St. Clem. A∣lex. lib. 2. paedag. c. 2. Bibere Jesu san∣guinem est parti∣cipem esse incorrup∣tionis Do∣mini. lib. 5.
• * 1.18

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Epist. ad Ephes. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.19

  1 Cor. 11.26.
• * 1.20

  Haec sump∣ta & hausta fa∣ciunt ut nos in Christo & Christus in nobis sit. lib. 8. de Trinit. habetur de consecrat. dist.
• * 1.21

  lib. 2. paed. c. 2.