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LETTER XIX.

ON THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S supper, as UNDERSTOOD IN THE CHURCH OF ROME; THE GREEK CHURCH; THE LUTHERAN CHURCHES; THE EARLIEST CALVINISTS; AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

ON the twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth articles, I shall not waste either your time or my own with making any observations. The doctrine of purgatory has no foundation in the Scriptures of either the Old or the New Testament-where the worshipping of images and relics, and the invocation of saints, whether real or supposed, is severely condemned as a species of idolatry. In my last Letter, it has been sufficiently proved, that no man can lawfully take upon himself the office of public preaching or administering the sacraments, unless he be called and sent by those who, from Christ, derive authority to send labourers into his vineyard; and the absurdity of speaking in the congregation, in a tongue not un

derstood by the people, is so glaring, that it is wonderful how the practice could have so generally prevailed, even in the darkest age of the church. Of the nature and importance of sacraments in general, you can nowhere find a better account than in Bishop Tomline's Exposition of the thirtynine Articles of our church, where he likewise proves, with the force of demonstration, that the effect of Christ's ordinance depends not at all upon the moral character of the administrator, but on the authority by which he ministers. On the sacrament of baptism, I have nothing to say in addition to what I have said in my Letter on Regeneration; but as there is no ordinance of the Gospel which has been the subject of more violent controversies between different churches, and even between different divines of the same church, than the sacrament of THE LORD'S SUPPER, I must endeavour to enable you to form a judgment for yourself of its nature and importance.

With respect to this sacrament, the outward and visible sign, and the inward and spiritual grace, have equally afforded matter of disputation to angry controvertists. The Church of Rome condemns the Greek Church and the Protestants, for using leavened bread in the Lord's supper; whilst the Greek Church in general, and some Protestant Societies in particular, unite with the Church of Rome, in censuring all churches which mix not the wine with a little water, as deviating improperly from primitive practice.

That it was unleavened bread which our Lord blessed, and brake, and gave to his Apostles as his body, cannot be questioned; for at the time of the passover, there was no leavened bread to be found in Jerusalem. * For the mixed cup the evidence is not so decisive; although in the first reformed liturgy of our Church, both unleavened bread, and wine diluted by water, were ordered to be used in the Lord's supper. It is indeed very absurd to insist, as I have heard several clergymen insist, on the necessity of the mixed cup, who yet, without hesitation, made use of leavened bread; for if it be essential to the sacrament, that the very same elements be employed by us that were employed by our Saviour, the necessity of unleavened bread is certainly equal to that of wine diluted by water. I urge not this objection to the mixed cup, which I know to be still used in some of our churches, from any dislike that I have to the practice. It is unquestionably harmless and primitive; and I wish that greater regard were paid to primitive practices, than the generality of churches seem to think they deserve; but let the advocates for antiquity be consistent: let them either restore, together with the mixed cup, the use of unleavened bread, or acknowledge that neither the one nor the other is essential to the sacrament.

But the controversies respecting the outward part or sign of the Lord's supper are of very little importance when compared with those which have

* Exod. xii. 15, 19.

been agitated respecting the inward part or thing signified.

The Church of Rome, which maintains that, after the consecration, Jesus Christ, God and man, is really, truly, and substantially contained under the outward appearances of bread and wine, informs us, by one of her prelates,* that, about the middle of the mass, when the priest, taking into his hand, first the bread, and then the wine, pronounces over each separately the sacred words of consecration, the substance of those elements is immediately changed, by the almighty power of God, into the body and blood of Christ; but that all the outward appearances of bread and wine, and all their sensible qualities remain. This more than miraculous change is called TRANSUBSTANTIATION; and is founded on the philosophy of Aristotle, † which was adopted and taught by all the Romish schoolmen. According to these philosophers and divines, it is only the matter, or imperceptible substance, which supports the forms or sensible qualities of bread and wine, which is taken away, and the substance or matter of the body and blood of Christ substituted for that removed matter; so that this divine matter, coming into the place of the former earthly matter, supports the very identical forms or sensi

* The late Bishop Hay, Vicar Apostolic in Scotland. See his Sincere Christian instructed from the written Word. In two vols. 8vo.

+ You will find the most perspicuous view of that philosophy in Harris's Philosophical Arrangements.

ble qualities, which it supported. Hence, we are told, that "Jesus Christ, now present instead of the bread and wine, exhibits himself to us under those very same outward forms or appearances which the bread and wine had before the change."

Could this doctrine be true, it would be abundantly mysterious; but to add to the mystery, we are farther informed, that under each kind is contained Jesus Christ whole and entire, his body and blood, his soul and divinity; so that when a man eats what has the appearance of a wafer, he really and truly eats the body and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ; and when he afterwards drinks what has the appearance of wine, he drinks the very same body and blood, soul and divinity, which, not a minute perhaps before, he had wholly and entirely eaten! The absurdity and gross impieties of this doctrine I have sufficiently exposed elsewhere; * and having no pleasure in revolving in my mind such shocking notions, I shall not here repeat them; but there is one mode of refuting the doctrine of transubstantiation, to which Protestant divines have not generally had recourse; and therefore, as it is wholly Scriptural, and, as I think, conclusive, I will re-state it here.

The advocates for the real presence in the Lord's Supper contend, that every word relating to that ordinance is to be taken in the strictest and

• Encyclopædia Britannica, under the title, SUPPER OF THE LORD, to which I know that you can easily have recourse.

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