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us, till the Holy Communion be oftener celebrated, than it hath been of late, in all places of the Kingdom: and am sure, that if people were but sensible of the great advantage it would be to them, they would need no other arguments to persuade them to frequent it as often as they can. For we should soon find, as many have done already, by experience, that this is the great means appointed by our Blessed REDEEMER, whereby to communicate Himself, and all the merits of His most precious Death and Passion to us, for the pardon of all our sins, and for the "purging our consciences from dead works to serve the living GOD." So that by applying ourselves thus constantly unto Him, we may receive constant supplies of grace and power from Him to live in His true faith and fear all our days; and by conversing so frequently with Him at His Holy Table upon earth, we shall be always fit and ready to go to Him, and to converse perpetually with Him at His Kingdom above, where we shall have no need of Sacraments, but shall see Him face to face, and adore and praise Him for ever; as for all His other blessings, so particularly for the many opportunities he hath given us, of partaking of His most Blessed Body and Blood.

OXFORD,

The Feast of the Purification.

[NEW EDITION.]

These Tracts are continued in Numbers, and sold at the price

of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1839.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

The following Works, all in single volumes, or pamphlets, and recently published, will be found more or less to uphold or elucidate the general doctrines inculcated in these Tracts:

Bp. Taylor on Repentance, by Hale.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Taylor's Golden Grove.-Parker, Oxford.

Vincentii Lirinensis Commonitorium, with translation.-Parker, Oxford.

Pusey on Cathedrals and Clerical Education.-Roake & Varty.
Hook's University Sermons.-Talboys, Oxford.

Pusey on Baptism (published separately).—Rivingtons.
Newman's Sermons, 4 vols.-Rivingtons.

Newman on Romanism, &c.-Rivingtons.

The Christian Year.-Parker, Oxford.
Lyra Apostolica.-Rivingtons.

Perceval on the Roman Schism.-Leslie.
Bishop Jebb's Pastoral Instructions.-Duncan.
Dodsworth's Lectures on the Church.-Burns.
Newman on Suffragan Bishops.-Rivingtons.
Keble's Sermon on Tradition.-Rivingtons.
Memoir of Ambrose Bonwick.-Parker, Oxford.
Hymns for Children on the Lord's Prayer.-Rivingtons.
Law's first and second Letters to Hoadly.-Rivingtons.
Bp. Andrews' Devotions. Latin and Greek.--Pickering.
Hook's Family Prayers.-Rivingtons.

Herbert's Poems and Country Pastor.

Evans's Scripture Biography.-Rivingtons.

Le Bas' Life of Archbishop Laud.-Rivingtons.

Jones (of Nayland) on the Church.

Bp. Bethell on Baptismal Regeneration.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Beveridge's Sermons on the Ministry and Ordinances.— Parker, Oxford.

Bp. Jolly on the Eucharist.

Fulford's Sermons on the Ministry, &c.-Rivingtons.
Rose's Sermons on the Ministry.-Rivingtons.
A Catechism on the Church.-Parker, Oxford.
Russell's Judgment of the Anglican Church.-Baily.
Poole's Sermons on the Creed.-Grant, Edinburgh.
Sutton on the Eucharist.-Parker, Oxford.
Leslie on the Regale and Pontificate.-Leslie.
Pusey's Sermon on November 5.-Rivingtons.
Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata.-Parker, Oxford.

Larger Works which may be profitably studied.

Bishop Bull's Sermons.-Parker, Oxford.
Bishop Bull's Works.-University Press.
Waterland's Works.-Do.

Wall on Infant Baptism.-Do.

Pearson on the Creed.-Do.

Leslie's Works.-Do.

Bingham's Works.-Straker, London.

Palmer on the Liturgy.-University Press.

Palmer on the Church.-Rivingtons.

Hooker, ed. Keble.-Do.

THE

HISTORY OF POPISH TRANSUBSTANTIATION;

TO WHICH IS OPPOSED THE

CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE,

THE ANCIENT FATHERS, AND THE REFORMED CHURCHES.

(By John Cosin, Bishop of Durham.)

CHAPTER I.

The Spiritual Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's

Supper.

THOSE words which our Blessed SAVIOUR used in the institution of the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, "This is My Body which is given for you; this is My Blood which is shed for you, for the remission of sins ;" are held and acknowledged by the Universal Church to be most true and infallible: and if any one dares oppose them, or call in question CHRIST's veracity, or the truth of His words, or refuse to yield his sincere assent to them, except he be allowed to make a mere figment, or a bare figure of them, we cannot, and ought not, either excuse or suffer him in our Churches; for we must embrace and hold for an undoubted truth whatever is taught by Divine Scripture. And therefore we can as little doubt of what CHRIST saith, John vi. 55, “My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed;" which, according to St. Paul, are both given to us by the consecrated Elements; for he calls the Bread, "the Communion of CHRIST's Body," and the Cup, "the Communion of His Blood."

Hence it is most evident, that the Bread and Wine, (which according to St. Paul are the Elements of the holy Eucharist), are neither changed as to their substance, nor vanished, nor reduced to nothing, but are solemnly consecrated by the words of CHRIST, that by them His blessed Body and Blood may be communicated

to us.

And further it appears from the same words, that the expression of CHRIST and the Apostle, is to be understood in a sacramental and mystic sense; and that no gross and carnal presence of body and blood can be maintained by them.

And though the word Sacrament be no where used in Scripture to signify the blessed Eucharist, yet the Christian Church, ever since its Primitive ages, hath given it that name, and always called

A

the presence of CHRIST'S Body and Blood therein, Mystic and Sacramental. Now a Sacramental expression doth, without any inconvenience, give to the sign the name of the thing signified; and such is as well the usual way of speaking, as the nature of Sacraments, that not only the names, but even the properties and effects of what they represent and exhibit, are given to the outward Elements. Hence (as I said before) the Bread is as clearly or positively called by the Apostle, the Communion of the Body of CHRIST.

This also seems very plain, that our Blessed SAVIOUR's design was not so much to teach, what the Elements of Bread and Wine are by nature and substance, as what is their use and office and signification in this mystery; for the Body and Blood of our SAVIOUR are not only fitly represented by the Elements, but also, by virtue of His institution, really offered to all, by them, and so eaten by the faithful mystically and sacramentally; whence it is, that "He truly is and abides in us, and we in Him."

This is the spiritual (and yet no less true and undoubted than if it were corporal) eating of CHRIST's Flesh, not indeed simply as it is flesh, without any other respect, (for so it is not given, neither would it profit us), but as it is crucified and given for the redemption of the world; neither doth it hinder the truth and substance of the thing, that this eating of CHRIST's body is spiritual, and that by it the souls of the faithful, and not their stomachs, are fed by the operation of the HOLY GHOST; for this none can deny, but they who being strangers to the Spirit and the divine virtue, can savour only carnal things, and to whom, what is spiritual and sacramental, is the same as if a mere nothing.

As to the manner of the presence of the Body and Blood of our LORD in the Blessed Sacrament, we that are Protestant and Reformed according to the ancient Catholic Church, do not search into the manner of it with perplexing inquiries; but, after the example of the Primitive and purest Church of CHRIST, we leave it to the power and wisdom of our LORD, yielding a full and unfeigned assent to His words. Had the Romish maintainers of Transubstantiation done the same, they would not have determined and decreed, and then imposed as an article of faith absolutely necessary to salvation, a manner of presence, newly by them invented, under pain of the most direful curse, and there would have been in the Church less wrangling, and more peace and unity than now is.

CHAPTER II.

Illustrated from Protestant Authorities.

So then, none of the Protestant Churches doubt of the real (that is, true and not imaginary,) presence of CHRIST'S Body and Blood in the Sacrament; and there appears no reason why any man should suspect their common confession, of either fraud or error, as though in this particular they had in the least departed from the Catholic faith.

For it is easy to produce the consent of Reformed Churches and authors, whereby it will clearly appear, (to them that are not wilfully blind,) that they all zealously maintain and profess this truth, without forsaking in any wise the true Catholic faith in this matter.

I begin with the Church of England..... It teacheth therefore, "that in the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of CHRIST is given, taken, and eaten; so that to the worthy receivers, the consecrated and broken Bread is the communication of the Body of CHRIST; and likewise the consecrated Cup the communication of His Blood; but that the wicked, and they that approach unworthily the Sacrament of so sacred a thing, eat and drink their own damnation, in that they become guilty of the Body and Blood of CHRIST." And the same Church, in a solemn prayer before the consecration, prays thus; "Grant us, gracious Lord, so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son JESUS CHRIST, and to drink His Blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood; and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us." The Priest also, blessing or consecrating the Bread and Wine, saith thus; "Hear us, O merciful FATHER, we most humbly beseech Thee, and grant that we receiving these Thy creatures of Bread and Wine according to Thy Son our Saviour JESUS CHRIST'S holy institution, in remembrance of His Death and Passion, may be partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood.".... The same, when he gives the Sacrament to the people kneeling, giving the bread, saith; "The Body of our LORD JESUS CHRIST which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." Likewise when he gives the cup, he saith, "The Blood of our LORD JESUS CHRIST which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul to everlasting

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