that holy Sacrament. Which being so divine and comfortable a thing to them who receive it worthily, and so dangerous to them that will presume to receive it unworthily; my duty is to exhort you in the mean season to consider the dignity of that holy Mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy receiving thereof; and so to search and examine your own consciences, (and that not lightly, and after the manner of dissemblers with God; but so) that ye may come holy and *clean to such a heavenly Feast, in the marriagegarment required by God in holy Scripture, and be received as worthy partakers of that holy Table.

The way and means thereto is; First, To sexamine your lives and conversations by the rule of God's commandments; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life. And if ye shall perceive your offences to be such as are not only against God, but also against your neighbours, then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them; being ready to make restitution and satisfaction, according to the uttermost of your powers, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other; and being likewise ready to forgive others that have offended you, as ye would have forgiveness of your offences at God's hand: for otherwise the receiving of the holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your damnation. Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, an hinderer or slanderer of His Word, an adulterer, or be in malice, or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to that holy Table; lest, after the taking of that holy Sacrament, the devil enter into you as he entered into Judas, and fill you full of all

iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.

And because it is requisite, that no man should come to the holy Communion, but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned Minister of God's Word, and open his grief; that, "by the ministry of God's Holy Word, he may receive the benefit of Absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.

DEARLY BELOVED, ON DAY NEXT.]-In the Order of Communion, 1548, in which this Exhortation first appears, it is preceded by a Rubric directing the Priest in charge, “at least one day before he shall minister the Communion,” to 'give warning to his parishioners, or those which be present, that they prepare themselves thereto." Before this all remained, but it was a rare thing for any to communicate with the Priest, except at Easter. Here all present were told to prepare themselves. This was the first blow struck in the Liturgy itself at the corrupt practice of "hearing Mass." The expression, "or those which be present," may refer to the presence of non-Parishioners, and include them in the invitation; for the Exhortation then began with the words, "Dear friends, and you especially upon whose souls I have cure and charge;" thus implying that others might be present.

SPIRITUAL FOOD.]-See the note on the words "spiritually eat" in the Exhortation at the Communion, Part II. c. i. § iii. p. 487.

d THAT HOLY MYSTERY.]—See before, ch. i. § ii. p. 24.

CLEAN, ETC.]-Compare Taverner :--"Therefore we must make clean our garment, before we be bold to go thither."1 'THAT HOLY TABLE.]-This is clearly not the Altar in these

Postils, p. 169; Oxf. 1841.

passages; but the Table is, by a figure, put for the Feast. See before, ch. ii. § iv. p. 44, and ch. xii. § i. p. 341.

8 EXAMINE YOUR LIVES AND CONVERSATIONS.]-Compare again the Postils of 1540:-" Let us first, or ever we approach to this Blessed Sacrament, examine ourselves, by acknowledging our sins against God, whereunto we shall be brought by hearing and considering God's will declared in His laws, and perceiving in our conscience that God is displeased with us for the same.' "1 This is noteworthy, because the practice of confession before Communion was then in full force, and is in fact inculcated in the same Homily.

h FORGIVENESS OF YOUR OFFENCES.]-After the corresponding clause in the Book of 1549, and in that only, the following sentences are inserted :- "And if any man have done any wrong to any other, let him make satisfaction and due restitution of all lands and goods wrongfully taken away or withholden, before he come to God's Board; or at the least be in full mind and purpose so to do, as soon as he is able; or else let him not come to this Holy Table, thinking to deceive God, who seeth all men's hearts. For neither the Absolution of the Priest can anything avail them, nor the receiving of this holy Sacrament doth anything but increase their damnation." Compare S. Chrysostom:2" Behold, I tell you beforehand, and adjure you, and with a loud voice proclaim, Let no one who has an enemy approach the sacred Table and receive the Body of Christ! Let no one who approaches have an enemy! Dost thou wish to draw near? Be reconciled, and then come and touch the Sacred Thing."

iTHEREFORE, IF ANY OF YOU BE A BLASPHEMER... BODY AND SOUL]-This passage forms a separate Exhortation in O. C., being said after that beginning "Dearly beloved in the Lord," "to them which be ready to communicate." In 1549 it was placed in the middle of that form, and not removed into its present position until 1662.3

រ JUDAS.]-"To avoid unnecessary contention" Wren' proposed to read "into Judas after the sop." Compare Taverner's Exhortation before the Communion :- "Beware lest, like as Judas received Christ's Body in purpose of evil life, . . . that the like fall not to you;"5 and Watson,

1 P. 342.

See before, p. 449.

5 Postils, p. 187.

2 Hom. xxi. ad Antioch. § 5, tom. ii. p. 242. Fragmentary Illustrations, p. 79.

4

Serm. x. fol. lv. 2. Sim. Serm. xi. fol. lxvii.

in 1558" After the receipt of our Lord's Body, the devil entered into Judas." This was clearly the common belief in England. It was also the general opinion of the Fathers. Thus S. Augustine" He received, and when he received, the enemy entered into him." S. Chrysostom2 compares those who, having received, "rushed away before the final thanksgiving" to Judas, who went out that he might complete the work of betrayal. S. Ambrose :3" He perished at that feast in which others are made whole." But it was not universal. S. Hilary says that "the Passover was celebrated by the reception of the Cup and the Breaking of Bread without him; for he was not worthy of the Communion of the eternal Sacraments." S. James 5 of Nisibis, that " after Judas was gone out from them, He took Bread," etc. In the middle ages it was the received opinion that he did partake; for which it may be sufficient to refer to Paschasius Radbertus for the earlier period, and Aquinas for the later. The former says:- "From the very institution of this rite He threatens judgment to those who receive it ill; in that the devil entered into Judas immediately after he had received the sop from the hand of the Lord." Aquinas has a distinct article on the subject, in which he concludes that" although Judas for his wickedness deserved to be deprived of the Sacrament, the Lord did notwithstanding deliver to him His Body and Blood; that He might not separate a secret sinner from the communion of others without an accuser and evident proof." That which in our version of John xiii. 26 is called "a sop" is in the Vulgate intinctus panis, "steeped bread." steeped bread." In an age when intinction was practised, this naturally gave rise to the belief that Judas received the Sacrament in that sop. All did not take it so, and Aquinas quotes S. Augustine to the contrary; but it was a very common notion, and contributed not a little, as we shall see, to the suppression of intinc

tion.

1 Tract. xxvi. in Joh. § 11, tom. iv. col. 660; and at length in Tract. lxii. col. 883, and elsewhere.

2 Hom. xx. ad Antioch, § 5, tom. ii. p. 242. See especially the Homilies de Prod. Jud. i. § 6, tom. ii. p. 453; ii. § 5, p. 464.

De Tobia, c. xiv. n. 47, tom. ii. p. 77. Again, Enarr. Ps. xxxix. n. 17, tom. iii. p. 124.

4 Comm. in S. Matt. c. xxx. § 2, col. 740.

5 Serm. xiv. de Pasch. 4, p. 341.

6 Lib. de Corp. et Sang. c. viii. col. 1286.

7 Summæ, P. iii. Q. lxxxi. Art. ii. p. 207.

8 Tract. lxii. in S. Joh. Ev. § 3, tom. iv. col. 885.

9 See P. ii. ch. ix. § v.

SECTION III. Of the Communion of the Unworthy.

We may here consider the question which is naturally raised by the case of Judas, whether the wicked receive the Body of Christ in this Sacrament, or only the bare sign or symbol of it. Our Lord Himself hath said, "Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life." From this it has been argued that the wicked do not eat His Body, because they have not eternal life. The argument is, however, worth nothing, unless it can be shown that no condition is implied or understood. General statements in Scripture are nearly always subject to limitation by some recognised condition. For example, when our Lord says in the same chapter, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out," or when He says, "Every one that asketh receiveth," He is acknowledged to speak only of those who "come," or "ask" in faith. In the same manner, He has been understood to mean that they who in the Eucharist eat His Flesh and drink His Blood spiritually have eternal life.

"13

The heading of the Twenty-ninth Article of Religion affirms that the wicked "do not eat the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper." The language is taken from the above and other sayings of our Lord in the same chapter, and the writer must be supposed to use it with His meaning. If He, speaking by anticipation of the holy Eucharist, meant us to understand that they who spiritually eat His Flesh and drink His Blood have "eternal life," and that they who do not so eat and drink them "have no life," we must also understand the borrowed language of the Article in the sense of a spiritual eating and drinking.

The Article itself affirms that "the wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth, as S. Augustine5 saith, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ." Here it is denied that the wicked are partakers of Christ" in the use of the Sacrament. To "eat the Body of Christ," as in the heading, and to be "partakers of Christ," as in the Article, are therefore identical in meaning;

1 S. John vi. 54.

3 S. Matt. vii. 8.

2 V. 37.

4 S. John vi. 53.

5 Tract. xxvi. in S. Joh. Ev. § 18; tom. iv. col. 664. But the words, “Although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ" are not in any Ms. of S. Augustine. They seem to have crept into the text of the ante-Benedictine editions from the Commentaries of Bede and Alcuin.